TPO 54 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

Essay topics:

TPO 54
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.

Listening:

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.

In the reading texts, there are three solutions to deal with the solinity problem.
First of all, by evaporating the water, one can deposit salt and other materials in the lake's water. However, it would intoxicate the air. If the local people was contaminated by the toxious air, their health condition may not be warranted.
Secondly, by inducing ocean water, as 20 percent less salty water, to the lake, one can gradually dilute the lake's water. Unfortunately, the Pacific Ocean is 100 kilometers away, and such pumping construction, like pipelines or canals as the texts given, may hugely cost, overwhelming local goverment financial assistance can afford.
thirdly, by seperating the lake into different parts, one can just maintain the salinity in the largest section. However, this area is often hitted by earthquake. As a result, the wall which divide the lakes cannot be sustained within a long time.Although it might be helped within some period of time, eventually, these seperated parts would mix back again. And this method would fail one day.
To sum up, these solutions should be modified.

Votes
Average: 7.5 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 242, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'texts'' or 'text's'?
Suggestion: texts'; text's
...uction, like pipelines or canals as the texts given, may hugely cost, overwhelming lo...
^^^^^
Line 4, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Thirdly
...rment financial assistance can afford. thirdly, by seperating the lake into different ...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 247, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: Although
... cannot be sustained within a long time.Although it might be helped within some period o...
^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 287, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
...Although it might be helped within some period of time, eventually, these seperated parts woul...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, as a result, first of all, to sum up

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 8.0 10.4613686534 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 5.04856512141 238% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 1.0 12.0772626932 8% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 7.0 22.412803532 31% => OK
Preposition: 19.0 30.3222958057 63% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 930.0 1373.03311258 68% => OK
No of words: 180.0 270.72406181 66% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.16666666667 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.66284150148 4.04702891845 91% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71393295768 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 125.0 145.348785872 86% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.694444444444 0.540411800872 129% => OK
syllable_count: 288.9 419.366225166 69% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 2.0 8.23620309051 24% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 1.25165562914 320% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 2.5761589404 272% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => 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: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 57.172784371 49.2860985944 116% => OK
Chars per sentence: 84.5454545455 110.228320801 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.3636363636 21.698381199 75% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.0 7.06452816374 127% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 4.19205298013 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.457914790913 0.272083759551 168% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.141827545909 0.0996497079465 142% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.12914818559 0.0662205650399 195% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.193356916716 0.162205337803 119% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.119891059794 0.0443174109184 271% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.1 13.3589403974 83% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 55.24 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 11.0289183223 86% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.41 12.2367328918 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.43 8.42419426049 112% => OK
difficult_words: 57.0 63.6247240618 90% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 10.7273730684 79% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.5 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.