Essay topics Altruism is a type of behavior 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 o | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

Essay topics:
Altruism is a type of behavior 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.In fact, many species of animals appear willing to sacrifice 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. In 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. If 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.

Listening Script:

You know, often in science, new findings force us to re-examine earlier beliefs and assumptions.

And a recent study of meerkats is having exactly this effect. The study examined the meerkat’s behavior quite closely, much more closely than had ever been done before. And some interesting things were found . . . like about eating habits . . . it showed that typically meerkats eat before they stand guard—so the ones standing guard had a full stomach! And the study also found that since the sentinel is the first to see a predator coming, it’s the most likely to escape . . . because it often stands guard near a burrow, so it can run immediately into the burrow after giving the alarm.

The other meerkats, the ones scattered about looking for food, are actually in greater danger. And in fact, other studies have suggested that when an animal creates an alarm,the alarm call might cause the other group members either to gather together or else to move about very quickly, behaviors that might actually draw the predator’s attention away from the caller, increasing that animal’s own chances of survival.

And what about people—what about some human acts that might be considered altruistic? Let’s take an extreme case, uh, suppose a person donates a kidney to a relative, or even to a complete stranger. A selfless act, right? But . . . doesn’t the donor receive appreciation and approval from the stranger and from society? Doesn’t the donor gain an increased sense of self-worth? Couldn’t such non-material rewards be considered very valuable to some people?

Que: Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, being sure to specifically explain how they cast doubt on points made in the reading.

The reading states that the individuals performing altruism acts gain nothing for themselves and provides two reasons of support. However, the professor explains that reexamined studies often showed that the assumptions were wrong and refutes each of the author's reasons.
First, the reading posits that animals appear willing to sacrifice food, or even their life, to assist other members of their group. However, the professor contends that it is a wrong conception. She states that, before a senital of meerkat's group takes responsibility of guarding the community, it is well fed rather than the common misconception that it has no food to eat. Moreover, as the senital sees the predator first, it has greater chances of escaping rather than meerkat whole community survival. Infact, in the group of the meerkats, the one's who go to hunt for food have greater chances of facing danger in their search rather than a senital just standing as a guard. After the signalling, the senital escapes quickly from the predator, but, the remaining members of the meerkat has to assemble and escape collectively which can drag attention of it's predator.
Second, the reading avers that humans do practice altruism activities like sharing food with others and donation of their body organs to family members, and even strangers without expecting anything. The professor opposes this point by explaining this scenario by an example of a person who donates a kidney to his relative or some unknown person. According to the professor, the man is expecting some praise and appreciation from the person for whom he donates and as well as from the society. In addition, this act increases self worth of the person in the society which is a greater gain attained in the professor's view.

Votes

Essay Categories

Integrated TOEFL Writing

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, moreover, second, so, well, as to, in addition, as well as

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 5.0 10.4613686534 48% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 5.01324503311 120% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1482.0 1373.03311258 108% => OK
No of words: 291.0 270.72406181 107% => OK
Chars per words: 5.09278350515 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.13022058845 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.64846589232 2.5805825403 103% => OK
Unique words: 167.0 145.348785872 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.573883161512 0.540411800872 106% => OK
syllable_count: 447.3 419.366225166 107% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 2.5761589404 233% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 35.1602482294 49.2860985944 71% => OK
Chars per sentence: 123.5 110.228320801 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.25 21.698381199 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.91666666667 7.06452816374 98% => OK
Paragraphs: 3.0 4.09492273731 73% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.163928311563 0.272083759551 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.056409536493 0.0996497079465 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0743387081211 0.0662205650399 112% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.113624095748 0.162205337803 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0485270445073 0.0443174109184 109% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.7 13.3589403974 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.54 12.2367328918 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.33 8.42419426049 111% => OK
difficult_words: 83.0 63.6247240618 130% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?

---------------------
Minimum four paragraphs wanted. The correct pattern:

para 1: introduction
para 2: doubt 1
para 3: doubt 2
para 4: doubt 3

Less contents wanted from the reading passages(25%), more content wanted from the lecture (75%).

Don't need a conclusion paragraph.

Read sample essays from ETS:
http://www.testbig.com/users/toeflwritingmaster

Rates: 83.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.