The Reading:
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 body 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 animals appear willing to sacrifice food, or even their life, to assist other members of their group. The meerkat, which is a mammal that dwells in burrows 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 the others hunt for food or eat food they have obtained. If the sentinel meerkat sees a predator such as a hawk approaching the group, it gives an alarm cry alerting the other meerkats to run and seek shelter. By standing guard, the sentinel meerkat gains nothing - it goes without food while the others eat, and it places itself 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.
Listening Script
You know, often in science, new findings force us to re-examine earlier beliefs and assumptions. And a recent study of meerkats is having exactly this effect. The study examined the meerkat’s behavior quite closely, much more closely than had ever been done before. And some interesting things were found… like about eating habits… it showed that typically meerkats eat before they stand guard – so the ones standing guard had a full stomach! And the study also found that since the sentinel is the first to see a predator coming, it’s the most likely to escape… because it often stands guard near a burrow, so it can run immediately into the burrow after giving the alarm. The other meerkats, the ones scattered about looking for food, are actually in greater danger. And in fact, other studies have suggested that when an animal creates an alarm, the alarm call might cause the other group members either to gather together or else to move about very quickly, behaviors that might actually draw the predator’s attention away from the caller, increasing that animal’s own chances of survival. And what about people – what about some human acts that might be considered altruistic? Let’s take an extreme case, uh, suppose a person donates a kidney to a relative, or even to a complete stranger. A selfish act, right? But …. Doesn’t the donor receive appreciation and approval from the stranger and from society? Doesn’t the donor gain an increased sense of self-worth? Couldn’t such non-material rewards be considered very valuable to some people?
The passage describes the altruism as sacrifice for others without any gain for own self. The passage gives examples of humans and animals specifically the meerkat. However, the lecture refutes this idea by positing that animals and humans somehow do this for their personal gain.
Firstly, the reading claims that humans are altruistic because they sacrifice their food and organs for sake of others. The professor disagrees with this point and says that, when humans do such kind of satisfaction for strangers, in return they get appreciation from those strangers. Furthermore, such appreciation results in their self-satisfaction. She says that, these two parameters of gain may encourage humans for such sacrifice.
Secondly, the article posits that Meerkats assign one of their group members the duty of sentinel. That sentinel results in its sacrifice for other members of the group so that they can eat food without being scared. However, the professor says that the sentinel satiates before performing this duty. Furthermore, when predator comes for attack, it becomes advantageous for sentinel to escape, thus jeopardizing those who are busy in eating food. In addition, when the meerkat alarms its members, it results in creating chaotic environment for them and they start running sporadically that results in predators' concentration to get away from sentinel.
Thus, it can be concluded that humans and animals like Meerkat described above are not altruistic according to the professor.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, furthermore, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, thus, in addition, kind of
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 5.0 10.4613686534 48% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 22.412803532 143% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 26.0 30.3222958057 86% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1271.0 1373.03311258 93% => OK
No of words: 233.0 270.72406181 86% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.45493562232 5.08290768461 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.90696013833 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.82750220825 2.5805825403 110% => OK
Unique words: 132.0 145.348785872 91% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.56652360515 0.540411800872 105% => OK
syllable_count: 382.5 419.366225166 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 3.25607064018 184% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 21.2450331126 80% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 37.5836739074 49.2860985944 76% => OK
Chars per sentence: 97.7692307692 110.228320801 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.9230769231 21.698381199 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.30769230769 7.06452816374 103% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => 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: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.217349443738 0.272083759551 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0855783500545 0.0996497079465 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0589986897542 0.0662205650399 89% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.138101317957 0.162205337803 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0687644596247 0.0443174109184 155% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 13.3589403974 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 53.8541721854 101% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.03 12.2367328918 115% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.02 8.42419426049 107% => OK
difficult_words: 67.0 63.6247240618 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.0 10.7273730684 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 10.498013245 84% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => 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.