The Salton Sea in California is actually a salty inland lake. The level of salt in the lake's water—what scientists call its salinity—has been increasing steadily for years because the lake's water is evaporating faster than it is being repl

Essay topics:

The Salton Sea in California is actually a salty inland lake. The level of salt in the lake's water—what scientists call its salinity—has been increasing steadily for years because the lake's water is evaporating faster than it is being replaced by rainfall or rivers. If the trend continues, the lake's water will soon become so salty that the lake will be unable to support fish and bird populations. The lake would then become essentially a dead zone. Fortunately, there are several ways to reverse the trend that is threatening the lake's health.

One option is direct removal of salt from the lake's water in special desalination facilities. Water from the lake would be pumped into the facilities and heated. This would cause the water to evaporate into steam, while salt and other materials dissolved in the water would be left behind. The steam would then be cooled down and returned to the lake as salt-free water. Gradually, the high salt levels would be reduced and the lake’s overall health would be restored.

Another possible solution is to dilute the salt level in the lake with water from the ocean. Since water in the Pacific Ocean is 20 percent less salty than water in the lake, bringing ocean water into the lake would decrease the lake’s salinity. The ocean water could be delivered through pipelines or canals.

Yet another solution would be to control the lake's salinity by constructing walls to divide the lake into several sections. In the smaller sections, salinity would be allowed to increase. However, in the main and largest section, salinity would be reduced and controlled by, among other things, directing all the freshwater from small rivers in the area to flow into that main section of the lake.

题目音频:

play

00:00/02:15收起原文

Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.

It would be great if we could stop the lake salt level from increasing and save its fish and bird populations. But the solutions you just read about aren't realistic or practical.

First, sure, taking salt out of the lake by desalination would reduce salinity, but it would present some serious problems as well. For example, as you've read, water pumped into desalination facilities evaporates and leaves behind solid materials that would dissolve in the water. Well, the solid materials that desalination facilities leave behind would pose a health risk. The materials will be mostly salt, but they would also include other types of chemicals. Some of the chemicals would be toxic, like selenium. If the wind spread selenium and other chemicals into the air and people breathe them in, that would be very dangerous to people's health.

Second, the idea of bringing ocean water into the lake, again, this would reduce salinity. But as you've read, it would require constructing pipelines or canals. The problem is that the local government may not have enough resources to pay for such major construction. The nearest shoreline of the Pacific Ocean is 100 kilometers away. Pipelines and canals are very expensive to build over such long distances.

As for the third solution, dividing the lake into sections by building a system of walls. Well, that's unlikely to work for very long. That's because the Salton Seas is located in a region that experiences frequent and sometimes intense geological activity, like earthquakes. That activity would almost certainly destroy the walls separating the different sections. So while this solution might work for a short while, the walls would likely collapse the first time there is a major earthquake. And water from the special sections with high salinity would mix back in with the low-salinity salinity from the main section.

The lecturer challenges the topic proposed in the reading that there are several ways to reverse the trend that is threatening the lake's health. And she thinks that these solutions are not realistic and practical.

First, the article suggests a solution is direct removal of salt from the lake's water in special desalination facilities. However, the professor points out that the solution presents serious problems. After the water evaporated into stream, salt and other materials left behind would include some toxic chemicals such as solium. If the toxic substance spread into the air and people breathe them in, it would be very dangerous.

Second, the passage indicates another option is to dilute the salt level in the lake with water from the ocean. But the lecturer argues that it requires canals and pipelines which the local government may not have much resources to pay such construction. because the nearest path is 100 kilometers away and canals or pipelines would be expensive to build such long distances. Thus, local government may not build the construction.

Third, the essay supposes another solution is constructing walls to divide the lake into several sections. Nevertheless, the professor supports that the solution cannot maintain very long because the area would experience many tense frequent geological activities. And the walls would collapse due to an earthquake, so the salinity in smaller sections would be merged into the main section. The salinity in the main section would increase again.

Votes
Average: 8 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 132, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'lakes'' or 'lake's'?
Suggestion: lakes'; lake's
...verse the trend that is threatening the lakes health. And she thinks that these solut...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 215, Rule ID: MUCH_COUNTABLE[1]
Message: Use 'many' with countable nouns.
Suggestion: many
...which the local government may not have much resources to pay such construction. bec...
^^^^
Line 5, column 256, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Because
...uch resources to pay such construction. because the nearest path is 100 kilometers away...
^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, nevertheless, second, so, third, thus, such as

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 5.04856512141 198% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 12.0772626932 58% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 11.0 22.412803532 49% => OK
Preposition: 23.0 30.3222958057 76% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 5.01324503311 259% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1286.0 1373.03311258 94% => OK
No of words: 242.0 270.72406181 89% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.31404958678 5.08290768461 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.94415379849 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6414139818 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 144.0 145.348785872 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.595041322314 0.540411800872 110% => OK
syllable_count: 390.6 419.366225166 93% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.51434878587 198% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 21.2450331126 80% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 31.9122681291 49.2860985944 65% => OK
Chars per sentence: 91.8571428571 110.228320801 83% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.2857142857 21.698381199 80% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.42857142857 7.06452816374 77% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => 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: 0.163408502745 0.272083759551 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0544219914113 0.0996497079465 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0554395955147 0.0662205650399 84% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0921014297147 0.162205337803 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0251483712132 0.0443174109184 57% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.2 13.3589403974 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 53.8541721854 101% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.22 12.2367328918 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.05 8.42419426049 107% => OK
difficult_words: 70.0 63.6247240618 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 10.498013245 84% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?

---------------------

Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.