Question : Summarise the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they case doubt on specific points made in the reading passage.
The cane toad is a large (1.8 kg) amphibian species native to Central and South America. It was deliberately introduced to Australia in 1935 with the expectation that it would protect farmers’ crops by eating harmful insects. Unfortunately, the toad multiplied rapidly, and a large cane toad population now threatens small native animals that are not pests. Several measures have been proposed to stop the spread of the cane toad in Australia.
One way to prevent the spread of the toad would be to build a national fence. A fence that blocks the advance of the toads will prevent them from moving into those parts of Australia that they have not yet colonized. This approach has been used before: a national fence was erected in the early part of the twentieth century to prevent the spread of rabbits, another animal species that was introduced in Australia from abroad and had a harmful impact on its native ecosystems.
Second, the toads could be captured and destroyed by volunteers. Cane toads can easily be caught in simple traps and can even be captured by hand. Young toads and cane toad eggs are even easier to gather and destroy, since they are restricted to the water. If the Australian government were to organize a campaign among Australian citizens to join forces to destroy the toads, the collective effort might stop the toad from spreading.
Third, researchers are developing a disease-causing virus to control the cane toad populations. This virus will be specially designed: although it will be able to infect a number of reptile and amphibian species, it will not harm most of the infected species; it will specifically harm only the cane toads. The virus will control the population of cane toads by preventing them from maturing and reproducing.
The reading passage explains about three different methods for controlling the cane toad population in Australia. These include placement of the national fence, capturing and destructing young toad and eggs by volunteers, and using disease-causing viruses.
The lecturer contradicts all these ideas and states that these measures are bound to be unsuccessful and will cause extreme damage to the environment.
In contrast to the author, who claimed that the national fence will block the way of advancing toads. The author posits that young toads and eggs can be carried by water currents from one place to another, thereby, making the national fence ineffective.
Secondly, the author states that catching cane toads and destroying their eggs by volunteers through a nation-wide campaign would be a simple method to control their population. However, the lecturer rebuts this by saying that untrained volunteers can actually damage the native frog population also, as they will not be able to differentiate between cane toads and native frog species.
The author of the passage claims that specially designed viruses that selectively cause diseases in the cane toads can help in controlling their population. This specific argument is challenged by the lecturer who states that these viruses will not only cause disease in toads living in Australia but can cause extensive damage to ecosystem by causing disease in cane toads in their native South American habitat.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 222, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...cting young toad and eggs by volunteers, and using disease-causing viruses. The...
^^
Line 7, column 416, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...in their native South American habitat.
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, however, if, second, secondly, so, in contrast, in contrast to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 6.0 10.4613686534 57% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 5.04856512141 178% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 28.0 30.3222958057 92% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1246.0 1373.03311258 91% => OK
No of words: 229.0 270.72406181 85% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.44104803493 5.08290768461 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.89008302616 4.04702891845 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.74888661888 2.5805825403 107% => OK
Unique words: 123.0 145.348785872 85% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.53711790393 0.540411800872 99% => OK
syllable_count: 381.6 419.366225166 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.23620309051 73% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 9.0 13.0662251656 69% => 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: 25.0 21.2450331126 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.671641514 49.2860985944 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 138.444444444 110.228320801 126% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.4444444444 21.698381199 117% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.22222222222 7.06452816374 131% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 1.0 4.33554083885 23% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.27373068433 23% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.148762744185 0.272083759551 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0676061570234 0.0996497079465 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0450598265601 0.0662205650399 68% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.083154951415 0.162205337803 51% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0391576099091 0.0443174109184 88% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.9 13.3589403974 127% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.64 53.8541721854 70% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 11.0289183223 129% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.57 12.2367328918 119% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.29 8.42419426049 110% => OK
difficult_words: 64.0 63.6247240618 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 10.498013245 114% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.2008830022 134% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 78.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.5 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.