Like many creatures humpback whales migrate long distances for feeding and mating purposes How animals manage to migrate long distances is often puzzling In the case of humpback whales we may have found the answer they may be navigating by the stars much | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

Like many creatures, humpback whales migrate long distances for feeding and mating purposes. How animals manage to migrate long distances is often puzzling. In the case of humpback whales, we may have found the answer: they may be navigating by the stars, much as early human sailors did. What we know about humpback whales makes this a distinct possibility.

First, humpback whales seem to be intelligent enough to use stars to navigate by. Whales' brains have a high degree of complexity'a common determiner of intelligence. This suggests that the whales' brain power far exceeds that of most other animals. The whales' well-developed cognitive ability seems to provide a sound basis for the ability to use a complex, abstract system of sensory stimuli such as the night sky for orientation.

Second, humpback whales migrate in straight lines. Animals can maintain movement in a straight direction for long distances only if they orient themselves by some external objects or forces. Many birds and other terrestrial creatures, for example, use physical landmarks to help them stay on track as they migrate. Whales, which swim in the open ocean, cannot rely on land features; they could, however, rely on stars at night to provide them with external signs by which to maintain direction over long distances.

Third, humpback whales exhibit an unusual behavior: they are sometimes observed floating straight up for minutes at a time, their heads above the water as though they were looking upward. The behavior is known as spy-hopping, and it is very rare among marine animals. One explanation for the function of spy-hopping is that the whales are looking at the stars, which are providing them with information to navigate by.

Whether humpback whales navigate by the stars during the migration is the focus of both the author and the professor. In reading passage, three reasons, including intelligent brain, straight migrate lines and unusual behaviors, have been elaborated. The professor, however, claims that these evidences are not convincing though fascinating.

First, as opposed to the author's opinion that humpback whales are so brainy that they could use a complicated system like the night sky for orientation, the professor states that there is no real connection between this ability and intelligence. She advances the theory by saying that other birds like ducks, also have the ability of navigation even though they only have an average intelligence, which are considered as an instinct since they were born.

In addition, the professor continues to cast doubt on the author's assertion that humpback whales can rely on external sighs to navigate in straight lines, by examining another explanation that they might take advantages of earth's magnetic field to navigate. In detail, she points out that the biomagnetite in the whale's bodies, which is sensitive to earth's magnetic field, could provide it with orientation, instead of the stars in the sky.

Finally, it is the professor's third argument that sharks would also perform the spy-hopping behaviors to look for preys rather than migrate or look at the stars, which contradicts the author's statement that the whales would look at the stars to navigate by spy-hopping. To explain it further, the professor contends that humpback whale also does this behavior in the daytime, when there is no star in the sky. Therefore, this reason is pure speculation.

An apparent disagreement exists between the author and the professor on the humpback whales' migration methods.

Votes

Essay Categories

Integrated TOEFL Writing

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 26, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ascinating. First, as opposed to the authors opinion that humpback whales are so bra...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 59, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...rofessor continues to cast doubt on the authors assertion that humpback whales can rely...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 185, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ook at the stars, which contradicts the authors statement that the whales would look at...
^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, however, look, so, therefore, third, in addition

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 37.0 30.3222958057 122% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 5.01324503311 299% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1534.0 1373.03311258 112% => OK
No of words: 286.0 270.72406181 106% => OK
Chars per words: 5.36363636364 5.08290768461 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.11236361783 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.76348559935 2.5805825403 107% => OK
Unique words: 161.0 145.348785872 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.562937062937 0.540411800872 104% => OK
syllable_count: 459.9 419.366225166 110% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.23620309051 61% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 2.5761589404 233% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 26.0 21.2450331126 122% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 70.9901634439 49.2860985944 144% => OK
Chars per sentence: 139.454545455 110.228320801 127% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.0 21.698381199 120% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.36363636364 7.06452816374 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => 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: 0.21989227543 0.272083759551 81% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0889236991408 0.0996497079465 89% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.060887979303 0.0662205650399 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.132506362168 0.162205337803 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0212563666569 0.0443174109184 48% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.8 13.3589403974 126% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 53.8541721854 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 11.0289183223 121% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.1 12.2367328918 115% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.07 8.42419426049 108% => OK
difficult_words: 75.0 63.6247240618 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 10.7273730684 107% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 10.498013245 118% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, however, look, so, therefore, third, in addition

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