Like many creatures, humpback whales migrate long distances for feeding and mating purposes. How animals manage to migrate long distances is often puzzling. In the case of humpback whales, we may have found the answer: they may be navigating by the stars, much as early human sailors did. What we know about humpback whales makes this a distinct possibility.
First, humpback whales seem to be intelligent enough to use stars to navigate by. Whales' brains have a high degree of complexity'a common determiner of intelligence. This suggests that the whales' brain power far exceeds that of most other animals. The whales' well-developed cognitive ability seems to provide a sound basis for the ability to use a complex, abstract system of sensory stimuli such as the night sky for orientation.
Second, humpback whales migrate in straight lines. Animals can maintain movement in a straight direction for long distances only if they orient themselves by some external objects or forces. Many birds and other terrestrial creatures, for example, use physical landmarks to help them stay on track as they migrate. Whales, which swim in the open ocean, cannot rely on land features; they could, however, rely on stars at night to provide them with external signs by which to maintain direction over long distances.
Third, humpback whales exhibit an unusual behavior: they are sometimes observed floating straight up for minutes at a time, their heads above the water as though they were looking upward. The behavior is known as spy-hopping, and it is very rare among marine animals. One explanation for the function of spy-hopping is that the whales are looking at the stars, which are providing them with information to navigate by.
The reading passage contends that humpback whales migrate long distances through navigating by the stars, and presents several evidences that seem to uphold the claim. However, the lecture disapproves the reasons presented in the reading passage by claiming that they are not very convincing. The points made in the lecture will be elaborated in more detail below.
First of all, the lecture counterpoints the reading passage, which asserts that humpback whales are intelligent enough to use starts to navigate by, by mentioning that there is no reasonable connection between being intelligent and having the ability to navigate by the stars. As an example, ducks also navigate using the stars but they have a general cognitive ability and are not exceptionally intelligent. This indicates that they navigate using stars by natural instinct, not because they are intelligent.
Secondly, while the reading passage maintains that humpback whales migrate in straight lines, the lecture refutes this point by claiming that there exists a different explanation to such behavior. There are components called biomagnetide in the humpback whales' brains, and this makes them to be sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field. Due to this, while most animals need external object or force to maintain a straight line, humback whales are able to do so by orienting by the Earth's magnetic field.
Last but not least, the reading passage asserts that humpback whales perform spy-hopping in order to look at the stars and achieve information for navigation. However, the lecture disputes this point by mentioning that whales are not spy-hopping in order to look at the stars. Even though it is an extremely rare behavior among marine animales, sharks also perform spy-hopping, which serves the purpose of looking for prey, instead of migration or looking at stars. Moreover, humpback whales also perform spy-hopping in the day when there are no stars, which clearly counterpoints the evidence presented in the reading passage.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, look, moreover, second, secondly, so, while, first of all
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 : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 22.412803532 94% => OK
Preposition: 41.0 30.3222958057 135% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 5.01324503311 120% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1695.0 1373.03311258 123% => OK
No of words: 316.0 270.72406181 117% => OK
Chars per words: 5.36392405063 5.08290768461 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.21620550194 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72900611269 2.5805825403 106% => OK
Unique words: 158.0 145.348785872 109% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.5 0.540411800872 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 520.2 419.366225166 124% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 1.25165562914 320% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.8847212975 49.2860985944 99% => OK
Chars per sentence: 130.384615385 110.228320801 118% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.3076923077 21.698381199 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.76923076923 7.06452816374 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
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: 0.23809171761 0.272083759551 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0904802687875 0.0996497079465 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0564209641805 0.0662205650399 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.143293394775 0.162205337803 88% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0214997866882 0.0443174109184 49% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.0 13.3589403974 120% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 53.8541721854 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 11.0289183223 115% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.1 12.2367328918 115% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.62 8.42419426049 102% => OK
difficult_words: 76.0 63.6247240618 119% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 10.7273730684 135% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.