The following appeared in the Health section of the Greenhorne Gazette.
"Motilac is a substance that occurs naturally in the human digestive tract. Many consumers of dietary supplements containing motilac report significant easing of digestive discomfort after just a few weeks of use. Among Greenhorne residents, the consumption of motilac supplements has increased 80% over the last seven years. Last year, Greenhorne`s five hospitals reported fewer cases of serious gastrointestinal disorders than any year on record. Meanwhile, sales of motilac supplements are declining in the neighboring town of Etonlin. Notably, hospitals in Etolin report a steady increase in the last two years in patients experiencing a wide range of distressing gastrointestinal symptoms. The clear explanation of these trends is that motilac is effective in preventing many serious gastrointestinal disorders."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The passage suggests that motilac is effective in preventing many gastrointestinal disorders. However there are several alternative explanations.
First, the reports from Greenhorne's five hospital can not prove that the decresing of serious gastrointestinal disorders is because of motilac. Since motilac supplements has increased over the last seven years, but hospitals only report the decreas of cases this year. It is possible that this is not because of motilac but other things. For example, the loacl government suggests that residents should live a healthy lives, because their publice health is in a bad contioon. And if residents being to live healthy lives, such as having enough sleeping time, eat healthier food and so on, it can also lead to the decreasing of cases. However, if it is because of the motilac, we should see a gradual decreasing of cases of gastrointestinal just like the gradual increasing of dietary supplements.
Besides, the passage mentions that motilac is a substance that occurs naturally in the human's body. So I doubt whether people need motilac supplements or not. Because we know that as for many substances which human can produce by themselves, there is no need to have extral supplements. For example, we know that human bodies have the ability to trans sugar into fat, so no one looks for fat supplements. In this case, I doubt whether those supplements are helpful or not.
At last, these trends can also be caused by other facts. Since they are hospitals in two different twons, and the climates of two towns can be different, these trends may have something to do with the climate change. For example, if Greenhorne people used to have a cold weather, and due to the climate change, their climate becomes warmer. The warm weather provide them with a better living condition and thus they have less cases. Meanwhile, if Etonlin people used to be a warm place with a good living condition, they can have less cases, but as the climate become even warmer, their living condition becomes worse and makes them have more cases.
In conclusion, although the explanation in the passage seems appealing, before solving the above questions and proving that the explanations of the above questions are erroneous, I hold my opinion about this explanation.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 7 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 10 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 378 350
No. of Characters: 1865 1500
No. of Different Words: 189 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.409 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.934 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.716 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 132 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 106 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 56 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.895 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.188 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.895 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.301 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.556 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.145 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 95, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...enting many gastrointestinal disorders. However there are several alternative explanati...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 419, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[2]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'life'?
Suggestion: life
...ts that residents should live a healthy lives, because their publice health is in a b...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 422, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun cases is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...ter living condition and thus they have less cases. Meanwhile, if Etonlin people use...
^^^^
Line 7, column 531, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun cases is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
... a good living condition, they can have less cases, but as the climate become even w...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, besides, but, first, however, if, look, may, so, thus, while, as for, for example, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 43.0 55.5748502994 77% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 16.3942115768 43% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1925.0 2260.96107784 85% => OK
No of words: 378.0 441.139720559 86% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.09259259259 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.40933352052 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.80308077564 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 199.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.526455026455 0.468620217663 112% => OK
syllable_count: 596.7 705.55239521 85% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 9.0 2.70958083832 332% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 48.6601647588 57.8364921388 84% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.315789474 119.503703932 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.8947368421 23.324526521 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.84210526316 5.70786347227 102% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.136676571067 0.218282227539 63% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0533015862133 0.0743258471296 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0615290431282 0.0701772020484 88% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.075268270476 0.128457276422 59% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0622627787332 0.0628817314937 99% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.5 14.3799401198 87% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.24 12.5979740519 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.84 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 78.0 98.500998004 79% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 12.3882235529 52% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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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.