Altruism is a type of behaviour in which an animal sacrifices its own interest for that of another animal or group of animals. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness; individuals performing altruistic acts gain nothing for themselves.
Examples of altruism abound, both among humans and among other mammals. Unselfish acts among humans range from the sharing of food with strangers to the donation of body organs to family members, and even to strangers. Such acts are altruistic in that they benefit another, yet provide little reward to the one performing the act.
ln fact, many species of animals appear willing to sacrince food, or even their life, to assist other members of their group. The meerkat, which is a mammal that dwells in burrows in grassland areas of Africa, is often cited as an example. ln groups of meerkats, an individual acts as a sentinel, standing guard and looking out for predators while the others hunt for food or eat food they have obtained. lf the sentinel meerkat sees a predator such as a hawk approaching the group, it gives an alarm cry alerting the other meerkats to run and seek shelter. By standing guard, the sentinel meerkat gains nothing-it goes without food while the others eat, and it places itself in grave danger. After it issues an alarm, it has to flee alone, which might make it more at risk to a predator, since animals in groups are often able to work together to fend off a predator. So the altruistic sentinel behavior helps ensure the survival of other members of the meerkat’s group.
The article and the lecture are both about altruism. It is a type of behavior in which an animal sacrifices its own interest for that of another animal or group of animal.
The author of article believes that this type of the behavior is the opposite of selfishness. However, the professor casts doubt on the claim made in the passage.
First of all, the author points that the meerkat is an example of altruism. While some of them hunt for food or eat food, others stand as guards in order to find predators. The author mentions that the sentinel meerkat, standing guard, gains nothing, that is why this situation is an example of altruism. This point is challenged by the professor. She says that cats are in danger when they stand guard. Eating food meerkats are selfish because they endanger other part of group.
Secondly, speaking about examples among humans, the author contends that altruism ranges from sharing of food with strangers to the donation of body organs to family members. However, the lecturer rebuts this argument. She suggests that all these actions are penetrated by selfishness because everybody wants to give benefits from others. 195
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, second, secondly, so, while, speaking about, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 0.0 5.04856512141 0% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 7.30242825607 41% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 31.0 30.3222958057 102% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 976.0 1373.03311258 71% => OK
No of words: 196.0 270.72406181 72% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.97959183673 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.74165738677 4.04702891845 92% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.42683439852 2.5805825403 94% => OK
Unique words: 121.0 145.348785872 83% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.617346938776 0.540411800872 114% => OK
syllable_count: 290.7 419.366225166 69% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 2.5761589404 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 15.0 21.2450331126 71% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 37.681160047 49.2860985944 76% => OK
Chars per sentence: 75.0769230769 110.228320801 68% => OK
Words per sentence: 15.0769230769 21.698381199 69% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.30769230769 7.06452816374 89% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.277145400298 0.272083759551 102% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0895148731495 0.0996497079465 90% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.123500135356 0.0662205650399 186% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.187853963496 0.162205337803 116% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.178622114939 0.0443174109184 403% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 9.6 13.3589403974 72% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 64.71 53.8541721854 120% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.0 11.0289183223 73% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.01 12.2367328918 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.41 8.42419426049 100% => OK
difficult_words: 50.0 63.6247240618 79% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 6.0 10.7273730684 56% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.0 10.498013245 76% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 65.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 19.5 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.