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,

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.

both the author and the lecturer discuss whether humpback whales use stars for navigation or not. The passage claims that the may be navigating by the stars. The professor, on the other hand, completely rejects whatever mentioned in the reading through citing three reasons.

First, both the author and the professor talk about intelligence. According to the passage, humpback whales are intelligent enough to use stars to navigate by. 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. The lecturer, nevertheless, rejects the author's view and illustrates the idea that there is no connection between intelligence and star navigation because other animals such as ducks that are not very clever use stars to find their way.

Second of all, both the reading and the lecture discuss whales' movement in a straight line. The author argues that whales rely on stars at night to provide them with external signs by which to maintain direction over long distances. However, the professor refutes this, saying that whales may me use earth magnetic field as an external object rather than stars. In other words, they have bio magnetite brains that are sensitive to earth magnetic field.

Eventually, both the passage and the lecture address the subject of spy-hopping. The passage goes on to mention that 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. In contrast, the professor points out that other animals such as sharks that neither migrate nor navigate use spy-hopping for hunting. In addition, whales do spy-hopping during the day as well which shows that whales' spy-hopping maybe not for looking at the stars.

All in all, the author maintains that it is possible for whale to use the stars for navigation, while the professor not only cast doubt on it, but he also demonstrates that evidences in the reading are not convincing.

Votes
Average: 8.5 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Both
both the author and the lecturer discuss whe...
^^^^
Line 13, column 209, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
...that the whales are looking at the stars , which are providing them with informati...
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, look, may, nevertheless, second, so, well, while, in addition, in contrast, such as, in other words, on the other hand

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 12.0772626932 132% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 42.0 30.3222958057 139% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 5.01324503311 279% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1747.0 1373.03311258 127% => OK
No of words: 339.0 270.72406181 125% => OK
Chars per words: 5.15339233038 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.29091512845 4.04702891845 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68482857894 2.5805825403 104% => OK
Unique words: 176.0 145.348785872 121% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.519174041298 0.540411800872 96% => OK
syllable_count: 524.7 419.366225166 125% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 51.4411071032 49.2860985944 104% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.1875 110.228320801 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.1875 21.698381199 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.0625 7.06452816374 128% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.166667707278 0.272083759551 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0626195591262 0.0996497079465 63% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.051419947051 0.0662205650399 78% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0975365696369 0.162205337803 60% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0371186640626 0.0443174109184 84% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 13.3589403974 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 53.8541721854 109% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.59 12.2367328918 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.99 8.42419426049 95% => OK
difficult_words: 71.0 63.6247240618 112% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Write the essay in 20 minutes.

Rates: 85.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.5 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.