Altruism is a type of behavior in which an animal sacrifices its own interest for that of another animal or group of animals. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness, individuals performing altruistic acts gain nothing for themselves.
Examples of altruism abound, both among humans and among other mammals. Unselfish acts among humans range from the sharing of food with strangers to the donation of organs to family members, and even to strangers. Such acts are altruistic in that they benefit another, yet provide little reward to the one performing the act.
In fact, many species of animal are willing to sacrifice their food, or even their life, to assist other members of their group. The meerkat, which is a mammal that dwells in grassland areas of Africa, is often cited as an example. In groups of meerkats, an individual acts as a sentinel, standing guard and looking out for predators while other hunt for food or eat food they have obtained. If a sentinel meerkat sees a predator such as a hawk approaching a group, it gives an alarm cry alerting other meerkats to run and seek shelter. By standing guard, the sentinel meerkat gains nothing- it goes without food while other eat and place themselves in grave danger. After it issues an alarm, it has to flee alone, which might make it more at risk to a predator, since animals in groups are often able to work together to fend off a predator. So the altruistic sentinel behavior helps ensure the survival of other members of the meerkat’s group.
The lecturer talks about some important findings of a closely conducted research on the behavior of meerkats and expresses her opinion on human behavior. She contradicts these findings with the one stated in the passage related to altruism and provides reasons for her opposition to those points.
Firstly, the lecturer describes her finding about the meerkat's eating habits. Meerkats most often eat before they stand guard and act as a sentinel while others in the group are hunting out for food. Also, the meerkat stands guard near its burrows. In case of any predator approaching a meerkat, it gives an alarm to other group members and escapes quickly to its burrow. As a result, the sentinel is at minimal danger of being attacked by its predators. This finding contradicts with the one stated in the passage as its claims that the sentinel in a group of meerkats is in grave danger when a predator hunts them as it has to protect other members in the group. Such a behavior is selfish in nature and is against the theory of altruism.
Secondly, the passage states that the sentinel has to flee alone after giving an alarm cry. But the lecturers finding is in contradiction with the one stated in the passage. When there is an alarm cry given by the sentinel, meerkats either run away or gather themselves together to protect each other. As a result, there are lesser chances for the predator to attack a group of meerkat. Hence, the sentinel of the meerkat actually is not in grave danger of being hunted by its predator as other meerkats can protect the guard in case of an alarm cry.
Finally, apart from meerkat behavior that lectures also talks about human behavior. She considers a case of kidney donation from one human to another. The passage states that sacrificing one needs for others is altruism. But when a human donates a kidney to another, the donor can receive accomplishment from the receiver and hence, increase the donor’s self-worth. Such non-materialistic gains are contradictory to the concept of altruism as stated in the passage.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 53, Rule ID: A_UNCOUNTABLE[5]
Message: Uncountable nouns are usually not used with an indefinite article. Use simply 'closely conducted research'.
Suggestion: closely conducted research
... talks about some important findings of a closely conducted research on the behavior of meerkats and express...
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, finally, first, firstly, hence, if, second, secondly, so, while, apart from, as to, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 12.0772626932 58% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 30.3222958057 188% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1722.0 1373.03311258 125% => OK
No of words: 352.0 270.72406181 130% => OK
Chars per words: 4.89204545455 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.33147354134 4.04702891845 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.64699560706 2.5805825403 103% => OK
Unique words: 162.0 145.348785872 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.460227272727 0.540411800872 85% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 535.5 419.366225166 128% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 13.0662251656 145% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 40.2090796102 49.2860985944 82% => OK
Chars per sentence: 90.6315789474 110.228320801 82% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.5263157895 21.698381199 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.10526315789 7.06452816374 86% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 4.45695364238 202% => Less 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: 0.154226494087 0.272083759551 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0587979350841 0.0996497079465 59% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0519882941079 0.0662205650399 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.106218998716 0.162205337803 65% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0261063155342 0.0443174109184 59% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.9 13.3589403974 82% => 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: 11.08 12.2367328918 91% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.94 8.42419426049 94% => OK
difficult_words: 76.0 63.6247240618 119% => OK
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?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.