Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they respond to the specific points made in the reading passage.
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 topic discussed here is the investigation of the causes of the disappearance of the sea otter, which is a small mammal that lives in waters along the western coast of North America from California to Alaska. The woman in the lecture argues that the cause of their disappearance is the presence of the predators, especially orcas, and not pollution as the reading says.
Firstly, she argues that one of the proofs of their being attacked by the predators is the fact that no one can find any dead sea otters. If the cause was the pollution, many dead sea otters would be found along the shores. In addition, a predator will immediately eat its prey so this is why no dead sea otters were found.
Secondly, the woman in the lecture argues there is another explanation than pollution why smaller sea mammals are all disappearing. She says that, since the whales tend to disappear because of the humans hunting them, the orcas had to adapt their food habits to the sea conditions and as a result they have started eating the smaller sea animals available among them sea otters being included.
Thirdly, she argues that the orcas cannot access the shallow locations. This is why there are some areas where the sea otters are numerous. It's not because of uneven concentrations of pollutants.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-09-17 | Anvita | 85 | view |
| 2018-09-11 | ATCHAYAPRIYA.M | 80 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 141, Rule ID: IT_IS[6]
Message: Did you mean 'it's' (='it is') instead of 'its' (possessive pronoun)?
Suggestion: It's; It is
...reas where the sea otters are numerous. Its not because of uneven concentrations of...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, if, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, in addition, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 10.4613686534 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 7.30242825607 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 8.0 12.0772626932 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 25.0 30.3222958057 82% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 5.01324503311 180% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1075.0 1373.03311258 78% => OK
No of words: 224.0 270.72406181 83% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.79910714286 5.08290768461 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.86867284054 4.04702891845 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.5881732524 2.5805825403 100% => OK
Unique words: 127.0 145.348785872 87% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.566964285714 0.540411800872 105% => OK
syllable_count: 333.9 419.366225166 80% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.23620309051 61% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 10.0 13.0662251656 77% => 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: 22.0 21.2450331126 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 63.7809532698 49.2860985944 129% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.5 110.228320801 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.4 21.698381199 103% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.2 7.06452816374 116% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 0.0 4.33554083885 0% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.208727221828 0.272083759551 77% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0804838257245 0.0996497079465 81% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.102376165995 0.0662205650399 155% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.126003474633 0.162205337803 78% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0870535997974 0.0443174109184 196% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 13.3589403974 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 53.8541721854 107% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 11.0289183223 97% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.86 12.2367328918 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.6 8.42419426049 102% => OK
difficult_words: 55.0 63.6247240618 86% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 10.498013245 103% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.