Hail—pieces of ice that form and fall from clouds instead of snow or rain—has always been a problem for farmers in some areas of the United States. Hail pellets can fall with great force and destroy crops in the field. Over the last few decades, a method of reducing hail, called “cloud seeding,” has been tried. In cloud seeding, the chemical silver iodide is sprayed on storm clouds from an airplane. This makes the clouds produce harmless rain or snow instead of hail. Several pieces of evidence suggest that cloud seeding has been effective in protecting crops from hail.
Laboratory experiments
Experiments in the laboratory support the idea that cloud seeding is effective. Hail usually forms in water vapor that is close to the freezing point. However, when experimenters added silver iodide to cold water vapor in the laboratory, they often observed light snow forming instead of hail pellets.
Evidence from Asia
There is evidence about the effectiveness of cloud seeding from several countries around the world. In some Asian countries, for example, cloud seeding has been successfully used to control precipitation in urban areas. These positive results suggest that cloud seeding should also be effective in protecting fields and farms in the United States.
Local studies
A few local studies also support the value of cloud seeding. One study conducted in a farming region in the central United States, for example, directly monitored crop damage due to hail. The study found that in an area where cloud seeding was used there was reduced hail damage compared to previous years.
Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.
It’s not clear that cloud seeding is all that effective and there are reasons to question each of the arguments you just read.
First, it may be true that under laboratory conditions, silver iodide creates snow instead of hail. However, in real life, silver iodide can actually prevent any precipitation at all from forming in the clouds—snow, rain, or hail. This is a bad thing, because if you seed all the clouds in areas where it doesn’t rain very often, you run the risk of causing a drought. In this case the crops simply get damaged for a different reason—lack of water.
Second, it’s not clear that the positive results with cloud seeding in Asia can be repeated in the United States. The reason is that cloud seeding in Asia was tried in urban areas—in cities. And cities tend to have a high level of air pollution—from car traffic, industry, etc. Surprisingly, pollution particles can create favorable conditions for cloud seeding, because they interact with clouds and the seeding chemicals. Such favorable conditions for cloud seeding may not occur in an unpolluted area. This means that the cloud seeding method that works in polluted cities may not work in unpolluted farming regions in the United States.
Third, the local study mentioned in the passage isn’t very convincing either. That’s because the study found that hail damage decreased not just in the area where the cloud seeding actually took place, but also in many of the neighboring areas to the east, south, and north of that area. So, the fact that the whole region was experiencing a reduced number of hailstorms that particular year makes it more likely that this was a result of natural variation in local weather and had nothing to do with cloud seeding.
The reading and the lecture are both about effects of cloud seeding on reducing hail, which is piece of ice.
The author of the reading believes there are several reasons why cloud seeding is effective on reducing hail. The lecturer challenges the statements made by the author. he is of the opinion that none of explanations are clear and reasonable.
First of all, the author suggests that cloud seeding, which is the chemical silver iodide, is effective as laboratory experiments support. it is mentioned that the silver iodide added to cold water vapor makes light snow instead of ice. The argument is refuted by the lecturer. he says under the laboratory conditions it may so, but other experiments show that silver iodide not only preventing ice, but also other forms of precipitation. Furthermore, he argues that such effects will also affect badly on crops even though it prevents hail.
Secondly, the article posits that cloud seeding is proved to be effective as seen from several asian countries. The article notes the result would be same in us farms. The lecturer, however, rebuts this by asserting that cloud seeding in Asia is usually used in urban areas where air pollution is higher. he elaborates on this by mentioning that the interaction between the cloud seeding chemicals and air pollutions particles result favorable condition, but same thing could not be said in us.
Finally, it is stated that local studies in us support cloud seeding. The author establishes that in one study cloud seeding reduced damage of hail compared to previous years. The lecturer, on the other hand, opposes that hail damage is not only reduced in the study area, but all neighboring areas. he puts forth the idea that it was more of natural variations of local weather.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 111, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... seeding is effective on reducing hail. The lecturer challenges the statements made...
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Line 3, column 170, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
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Suggestion: He
...nges the statements made by the author. he is of the opinion that none of explanat...
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Line 5, column 141, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...ive as laboratory experiments support. it is mentioned that the silver iodide add...
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Line 5, column 280, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: He
...he argument is refuted by the lecturer. he says under the laboratory conditions it...
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Line 7, column 306, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: He
...an areas where air pollution is higher. he elaborates on this by mentioning that t...
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Line 9, column 9, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ing could not be said in us. Finally, it is stated that local studies in us su...
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Line 9, column 302, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: He
... study area, but all neighboring areas. he puts forth the idea that it was more of...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, furthermore, however, may, second, secondly, so, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 10.4613686534 182% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 22.412803532 120% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 34.0 30.3222958057 112% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1483.0 1373.03311258 108% => OK
No of words: 297.0 270.72406181 110% => OK
Chars per words: 4.99326599327 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.15134772569 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.56323400744 2.5805825403 99% => OK
Unique words: 162.0 145.348785872 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.545454545455 0.540411800872 101% => OK
syllable_count: 464.4 419.366225166 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.51434878587 264% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 21.2450331126 80% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 37.9232515797 49.2860985944 77% => OK
Chars per sentence: 87.2352941176 110.228320801 79% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.4705882353 21.698381199 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.29411764706 7.06452816374 89% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 4.19205298013 167% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 4.33554083885 254% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => 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: 0.130025390204 0.272083759551 48% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0420024067522 0.0996497079465 42% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.038016859823 0.0662205650399 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0807483911755 0.162205337803 50% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0319707028057 0.0443174109184 72% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.8 13.3589403974 81% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 53.8541721854 101% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.37 12.2367328918 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.68 8.42419426049 103% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 63.6247240618 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 10.498013245 84% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 81.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.5 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.