Question
----------
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on the specific solutions presented in the reading passage.
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 lecture talks about the effectiveness that the proposed methods used to control the growth of the population of the cane toad, which apparently refutes the points illustrated in the reading passage. According to the reading passage, there are some effective ways to stop the spread of the cane toad. Conversely, the lecturer holds the view that those methods may not as useful as they stated.
First, the national fences will not efficiently block the advance of the toads, namely, these fences only stop few cane toads instead most of them. The cane toads' eggs lie in rivers or streams. This also indicates that these eggs will spread through those currents. In other word, those streams with cane toads egg in it help carry young toads to the other side, where the national fences only stop several toads. This contradicts the method that the passage mentioned.
The second point the lecturer argues is that the volunteers may not capture or destroyed the cane toads as the passage expect. However, the passage suggest that the toads could be easily destroyed. It may not reach the expectation since the untrained volunteers may kill the wrong toads. It is not easy to identify the cane toads from the other native toads without professonal training. Therefore, volunteers may cause negative impact on the native toads instead of controlling the population of the cane toads.
Another point that the lecturer adopts is that the virus the researcher developed may have bad effect on other native toads. Once the toads get infected, they will all be killed instead of few number of them.
those streams with cane toads egg in it help carry young toads to the other side,
Description: 'it' refers to what?
as the passage expect
as the passage expects
the passage suggest that
the passage suggests that
Sentence: It is not easy to identify the cane toads from the other native toads without professonal training.
Error: professonal Suggestion: professional
flaws:
The third argument can be developed better. Read a sample:
http://www.testbig.com/integrated-toefl-writing-essays/question-summari…
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 24 in 30
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 3 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 1 2
No. of Sentences: 15 12
No. of Words: 267 250
No. of Characters: 1296 1200
No. of Different Words: 131 150
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.042 4.2
Average Word Length: 4.854 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.309 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 84 80
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 60 60
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 35 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 24 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.8 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.575 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.393 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.579 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.144 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 4