The sea otter is a small mammal that lives in waters along the western coast of
North America from California to Alaska. When some sea otter populations off the
Alaskan coast started rapidly declining a few years ago, it caused much concern
because sea otters play an important ecological role in the coastal ecosystem.
Experts started investigating the cause of the decline and quickly realized that
there were two possible explanations: environmental pollution or attacks by predators.
Initially, the pollution hypothesis seemed the more likely of the two.
The first reason why pollution seemed the more likely cause was that there
were known sources of it along the Alaskan coast, such as oil rigs and other
sources of industrial chemical pollution. Water samples from the area revealed
increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters' resistance to lifethreatening
infections and thus could Indirectly cause their deaths.
Second, other sea mammals such as seals and sea lions along the Alaskan
coast were also declining, indicating that whatever had endangered the otters was
affecting other sea mammals as well. This fact again pointed to environmental pollution,
since it usually affects the entire ecosystem rather than a single species.
Only widely occurring predators, such as the orca (a large predatory whale), could
have the same effect, but orcas prefer to hunt much larger prey, such as other
whales.
Third, scientists believed that the pollution hypothesis could also explain the
uneven pattern of otter decline: at some Alaskan locations the otter populations
declined greatly, while at others they remained stable. Some experts explained
these observations by suggesting that ocean currents or other environmental factors
may have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast.
The reading passage asserts that anting which is an act done by birds (rubbing ants on their feathers) is based on three main assumptions. The lecturer, however, challenges those statements, and provides reasons to refute them all.
First of all, the author claims that rubbing ants on the feathers by birds is in service of the aim smoothing the skin irritation during feather change. Conversely, the speaker brings up the fact that in the summer ants are more active, so they are easier to be found by birds. Moreover, birds will find many more ants. As a result, the change in birds' feathers and anting could simply be a coincidence.
Secondly, the writer argues that anting helps birds to be protected against parasites. On the contrary, the lecturer underlines the fact that there is no reliable evidence of the benefit of anting on birds. Additionally, he says that birds which engage anting are not necessarily protected against parasites. other animals like rats do not engage anting but they are not infected more than birds by parasites.
Finally, it is stated in the passage that birds commit anting to feed on them. In contrast, the speaker dismisses this issue due to the fact that rubbing other objects like a piece of soap or cigarets have been observed among birds. As we know, birds do not eat those things, and rubbing things on their feathers is an instinctive behavior for birds.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 310, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Other
...ecessarily protected against parasites. other animals like rats do not engage anting ...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, conversely, finally, first, however, moreover, second, secondly, so, in contrast, as a result, first of all, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 33.0 30.3222958057 109% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1165.0 1373.03311258 85% => OK
No of words: 239.0 270.72406181 88% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.87447698745 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.93187294222 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.49906759455 2.5805825403 97% => OK
Unique words: 132.0 145.348785872 91% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.55230125523 0.540411800872 102% => OK
syllable_count: 350.1 419.366225166 83% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 30.4236360933 49.2860985944 62% => OK
Chars per sentence: 89.6153846154 110.228320801 81% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.3846153846 21.698381199 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.92307692308 7.06452816374 140% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.0 0.272083759551 0% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0 0.0996497079465 0% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0 0.0662205650399 0% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0 0.162205337803 0% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0 0.0443174109184 0% => 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: 10.7 13.3589403974 80% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 61.67 53.8541721854 115% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 11.0289183223 83% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.97 12.2367328918 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.77 8.42419426049 92% => OK
difficult_words: 49.0 63.6247240618 77% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.
Rates: 3.33333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 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.