In the past century, the steady growth of the human population and the corresponding increase in agriculture and pesticide use have caused much harm to wildlife in the United States,birds in particular. Unfortunately for birds, these trends are likely to continue, with the result that the number of birds in the United States will necessarily decline.
First, as human populations and settlements continue to expand, birds' natural habitats will continue to disappear. Forests, wetlands, and grasslands will give way to ever more homes, malls, and offices. As the traditional areas suitable for birds keep decreasing, so will the size of the bird populations that depend on those vanishing habitats.
Second, agricultural activities must increase to keep pace with the growing human population. The growth of agriculture will also result in the further destruction of bird habitats as more and more wilderness areas are converted to agricultural use. As a result, bird populations in rural areas will continue to decline.
Third, as human settlements expand and agriculture increases, the use ofchemical pesticides will also increase. Pesticides are poisons designed to kill agricultural and home garden pests, such as insects, but inevitably, pesticides get into the water and into the food chain for birds where they can harm birds. Birds that eat the poisoned insects or drink contaminated water can die as a result, and even if pesticides do not kill birds outright, they can prevent them from reproducing successfully. So pesticides have significantly contributed to declines in bird population, and because there will continue to be a need to control agricultural pests in the future, this decline will continue.
The reading passage discusses some trends adopted in the United States that are negatively affecting wildlife, especially birds whom their populations are declining due to agriculture and the use of pesticides. However, the speaker in the lecture casts doubt on the claims made in the article. She mentions that the arguments in the reading are unconvincing.
First and foremost, the author believes that the human real estate development is destroying natural habitat for birds and leading to a decrease in their numbers. Nevertheless, the lecturer brings up the fact that although some types of birds are dwindling in numbers, other kinds are actually growing even more in the urban areas. For instance, some people complain about the overgrowth of seagulls and pigeons in cities. In addition, the populations of predators that feed on those species, such as hawks and falcons, are also increasing as well.
Secondly, the writer holds that bird species in rural areas are declining because of the exploitation of lands for agriculture to match the rising human population. In contrast, the lecturer challenges this point of view. She illustrates that the introduction of more productive varieties of crops is helping farmers to depend on smaller areas of land to get the same yields, hence saving bird habitats in wilderness areas.
Lastly, the excerpt contends that the drop in the bird population could be partly contributed to pesticides which leak into water or are present in insect bodies, which birds consume. Consequently, large number of birds die due to the toxicity of pesticides in their food and water. Conversely, the lecturer asserts that even though this is happening now, we cannot project that this process will continue into the future. This is mainly due to the fact that less toxic pesticides are being introduced. Moreover, crops that are genetically designed to be pest-resistant do not need pesticides.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 13, column 595, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... pest-resistant do not need pesticides.
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, consequently, conversely, first, hence, however, if, lastly, moreover, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, well, for instance, in addition, in contrast, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 10.4613686534 163% => 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: 23.0 22.412803532 103% => OK
Preposition: 43.0 30.3222958057 142% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1638.0 1373.03311258 119% => OK
No of words: 309.0 270.72406181 114% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30097087379 5.08290768461 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.1926597562 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.81536658357 2.5805825403 109% => OK
Unique words: 180.0 145.348785872 124% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.582524271845 0.540411800872 108% => OK
syllable_count: 498.6 419.366225166 119% => 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: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.557777728 49.2860985944 101% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.2 110.228320801 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.6 21.698381199 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 12.0666666667 7.06452816374 171% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.155590025514 0.272083759551 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0438227971656 0.0996497079465 44% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0443247551204 0.0662205650399 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0883064545217 0.162205337803 54% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0148339775543 0.0443174109184 33% => 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: 13.8 13.3589403974 103% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 53.8541721854 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.46 12.2367328918 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.38 8.42419426049 111% => OK
difficult_words: 93.0 63.6247240618 146% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 10.7273730684 107% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.