he zebra mussel, a freshwater shellfish native to Eastern Europe, has long been spreading out from its original habitats and has now reached parts of North America. There are reasons to believe that this invasion cannot be stopped and that it poses a serious threat to freshwater fish populations in all of North America.
First, the history of the zebra mussel's spread suggests that the invasion might be unstoppable. It is a prime example of an invasion made possible by human transportation. From the zebra mussel's original habitats in Eastern Europe, ships helped spread it out along new canals built to connect Europe's waterways. The mussel can attach itself to a ship's bottom or can survive in the water - called "ballast water" - that the ship needs to take on to properly balance its cargo. By the early nineteenth century, the mussel had spread to the whole of Europe. It was later carried to the east coast of North America in the ballast water of ships traveling from Europe. The way ships have spread the zebra mussel in the past strongly suggests that the species will soon colonize all of North America.
Moreover, once zebra mussels are carried to a new habitat, they can dominate it. They are a hardy species that does well under a variety of conditions, and they have a high rate of reproduction. Most important, however, zebra mussels often have no predators in their new habitats, and species without natural predators are likely to dominate their habitats.Finally, zebra mussels are likely to cause a decline in the overall fish population in habitats where they become dominant. The mussels are plankton eaters, which means that they compete for food with many freshwater fish species.
The reading states the abundance of zebra mussels in europe and ultimately colonizing all over North America because of the various reasons of it's abundance. The lecture whereas opposes the passage reasons and gives many ways to control the zebra mussels and the fact that the colonizing power is not that significant as well.
To begin with, the zebra mussels are transferred by ships when they transfer the ballast water from sea of europe to new places. The lecture points out that the ships can be made to empty the water in which mussels are present, and fill in with the new ocean water. This decreases the number of zebra mussels reaching new places and colonizing the habitats.
Secondly, the hardy nature and the unavailability of predators making zebra mussels uncontrollable is countered by the adaptation og aquatic birds in the light of knowledge of new foods availability. The aquatic birds are very voracious feeders and they tend to clear out many zebra mussels if they find them tasty. This will definitely limit the population of mussels in their new habitat and decreases the chances of dominating the aquatic habitat altogether.
To continue, the reading gives the view of competition for planktons in the aquatic habitat will reduce the population of fish. Indeed, it might result in decrement of number of phytoplanktons fish but the nutrient the other fishes like: - carnvorous fishes, bottom feeders will definitely have a good time utilizing zebra mussels as food or as derivaives of food. This will definitely increase the number of fishes in total rather than decreasing it.
To sum it all up, the reasons provided in the passage were only applicable in the beginning days where the proper control methods were not known. But nowadays with research and science on it's prime, we should not be worried about the threat of mussels in new areas. The same is reflected in the lecture opposing the reasons of the passage.
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?If people have the opportunity to get a secure job, they should take it right away rather than wait for a job that would be more satisfying.Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. 60
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Universities should require students to study many subjects in different fields rather than just their major subjects. 73
- Which one is the most important factor to help you work productively Having an environment which is free of noise and distractions Knowing that you will receive a reward Doing something you are interested in 90
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement The ability to maintain friendships with a small number of people over a long period of time is more important for happiness than the ability to make many new friends easily 70
- TOEFL T P O 4 Integrated Writing Task 55
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 157, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... new places. The lecture points out that the ships can be made to empty the wate...
^^
Line 5, column 175, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ecture points out that the ships can be made to empty the water in which mussels...
^^
Line 9, column 181, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'foods'' or 'food's'?
Suggestion: foods'; food's
... birds in the light of knowledge of new foods availability. The aquatic birds are ver...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, if, second, secondly, so, well, whereas, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 7.30242825607 164% => OK
Relative clauses : 6.0 12.0772626932 50% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 17.0 22.412803532 76% => OK
Preposition: 50.0 30.3222958057 165% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 5.01324503311 160% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1637.0 1373.03311258 119% => OK
No of words: 325.0 270.72406181 120% => OK
Chars per words: 5.03692307692 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.24591054749 4.04702891845 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62252717118 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 170.0 145.348785872 117% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.523076923077 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 513.0 419.366225166 122% => 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: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.199538154 49.2860985944 86% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.928571429 110.228320801 106% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.2142857143 21.698381199 107% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.21428571429 7.06452816374 60% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => 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: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.189231655354 0.272083759551 70% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0698823987815 0.0996497079465 70% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0376326209467 0.0662205650399 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.104340324182 0.162205337803 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0337891070934 0.0443174109184 76% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 13.3589403974 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 53.8541721854 89% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 11.0289183223 112% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.25 12.2367328918 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.42 8.42419426049 100% => OK
difficult_words: 75.0 63.6247240618 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 10.498013245 107% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
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.