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.
In this set of materials, the reading passage states that humpback whales migrate long distances and use stars for navigation. However, the lecturer asserts that this idea is fascinating but the evidence explored in passage is not convincing, so he refutes them all.
First of all, it is mentioned in the article that whales seem intelligent enough to use stars to navigate by. In contrast, the professor claims that this kind of navigation does not need brain with high level of complexity. He provides and example of dock to illustrate it. Dock can find his way by looking at sky and it is because of instinct ability it is born with. Therefore, intelligence and navigation via stars are not connected.
Furthermore, the passage argues that since humpback whales move in straight lines, they must orient themselves by some external object or forces. On the contrary, the lecturer explains that the external force for whales is magnetic fields of the earth. It makes animal enable to orient themselves and find their ways. Hence, the external object is not necessarily something that is stated in the article.
Finally, the reading passage contends that whales' heads are upward during migration which means they are seeking assistance from sky to search the direction. Conversely, the professor believes that this behavior is not unique for whales and shark do the same, while they do not migrate by star navigation. There are some other explanations for sky-hopping such as looking for hunt. Moreover, they look at sky even during the day when there is no star above their heads. In fact, their behavior is only for speculation.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, conversely, finally, first, furthermore, hence, however, look, moreover, so, therefore, while, in contrast, in fact, kind of, such as, first of all, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 10.4613686534 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 22.412803532 138% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 33.0 30.3222958057 109% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 5.01324503311 199% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1369.0 1373.03311258 100% => OK
No of words: 271.0 270.72406181 100% => OK
Chars per words: 5.05166051661 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.05734859645 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.64783225398 2.5805825403 103% => OK
Unique words: 154.0 145.348785872 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.568265682657 0.540411800872 105% => OK
syllable_count: 422.1 419.366225166 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 3.25607064018 184% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 34.1622964685 49.2860985944 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 85.5625 110.228320801 78% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.9375 21.698381199 78% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.5625 7.06452816374 150% => 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 : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.27373068433 234% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.165567065988 0.272083759551 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0495699229958 0.0996497079465 50% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0595110128224 0.0662205650399 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0964888539789 0.162205337803 59% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0422606050336 0.0443174109184 95% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.8 13.3589403974 81% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 55.24 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 11.0289183223 86% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.71 12.2367328918 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.1 8.42419426049 96% => OK
difficult_words: 63.0 63.6247240618 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.5 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.