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.
While the passage raises several points supporting that humpback whales use stars to migrate, the professor in the lecturer opposes this idea and points out the problems of each argument made in the reading.
First of all, according to the passage, humpback whales rely on stars for migration because they are sufficiently intelligent to do so. It points out that the outstanding brain power of humpback whales provides an excellent foundation for them to navigate by stars. However, the professor claims that there is no clear relationship between animals' intelligence and their ability to use stars to navigate. For example, birds and ducks also navigate using stars, but they are not intelligent as whales. Further, he concludes that it is just out of animals' instinct to do so.
Secondly, while the reading suggests that whales navigate by the distant object, stars, because they are observed to migrate in straight lines, the lecturer rebuts that it is true that they use some external force for migration, but they in reality use magnetic field instead of stars. This is because bio-magnetite is discovered in humpback whales' brains, which enables them to move in straight lines.
Thirdly, it is said in the reading passage that the unusual behavior of humpback whales, spy-hopping, suggests they watch stars for navigation. In contrast, the professor contends that such a behavior can be found in sharks as well, which do not even migrate. Moreover, he mentions that whales also do spy-hopping at days, when stars cannot be seen.
- Students should take courses from professors who are voted to be the most popular instead of professors who are rewarded for outstanding research 80
- Broccoli is a vegetable that is popular throughout the United States but it can be grown only in temperate climates with mild summers Because of this limitation 90 percent of the broccoli consumed in the United States is grown in the cooler regions of Cal 80
- Which ONE of the following abilities do you think is most important for a teacher of high school students ages 15 18 to have The ability to give good advice to students about planning for their future The ability to recognize which students in a class nee 73
- It is as important for old people to study and learn new things as it is for young people 70
- The fossil record shows that members of the group of dinosaurs known as lambeosaurs had large bony crests on top of their heads The shape of the crests varied from species to species but all lambeosaur crests contained extended hollow passages No one real 80
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, moreover, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, well, while, for example, in contrast, first of all, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 22.412803532 120% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 31.0 30.3222958057 102% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 5.01324503311 120% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1289.0 1373.03311258 94% => OK
No of words: 251.0 270.72406181 93% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.13545816733 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.98032404683 4.04702891845 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6621715472 2.5805825403 103% => OK
Unique words: 136.0 145.348785872 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.541832669323 0.540411800872 100% => OK
syllable_count: 387.9 419.366225166 92% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.23620309051 49% => 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: 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: 22.0 21.2450331126 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 57.3939553934 49.2860985944 116% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.181818182 110.228320801 106% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.8181818182 21.698381199 105% => OK
Discourse Markers: 12.5454545455 7.06452816374 178% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.228347774179 0.272083759551 84% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0902426037134 0.0996497079465 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0474325402747 0.0662205650399 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.135304716876 0.162205337803 83% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0393427509785 0.0443174109184 89% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.2 13.3589403974 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 53.8541721854 107% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 11.0289183223 97% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.83 12.2367328918 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.75 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 64.0 63.6247240618 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 10.498013245 103% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => 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.