The Salton Sea in California is actually a salty inland lake. The level of salt in the lake's water—what scientists call its salinity—has been increasing steadily for years because the lake's water is evaporating faster than it is being replaced by rainfall or rivers. If the trend continues, the lake's water will soon become so salty that the lake will be unable to support fish and bird populations. The lake would then become essentially a dead zone. Fortunately, there are several ways to reverse the trend that is threatening the lake's health.
One option is direct removal of salt from the lake's water in special desalination facilities. Water from the lake would be pumped into the facilities and heated. This would cause the water to evaporate into steam, while salt and other materials dissolved in the water would be left behind. The steam would then be cooled down and returned to the lake as salt-free water. Gradually, the high salt levels would be reduced and the lake’s overall health would be restored.
Another possible solution is to dilute the salt level in the lake with water from the ocean. Since water in the Pacific Ocean is 20 percent less salty than water in the lake, bringing ocean water into the lake would decrease the lake’s salinity. The ocean water could be delivered through pipelines or canals.
Yet another solution would be to control the lake's salinity by constructing walls to divide the lake into several sections. In the smaller sections, salinity would be allowed to increase. However, in the main and largest section, salinity would be reduced and controlled by, among other things, directing all the freshwater from small rivers in the area to flow into that main section of the lake.
In the reading passage, the author concentrates on several solutions to reverse the increasing trend in the level of salt in the water of The Salton Sea in California. However, the lecturer casts doubt on these solutions and respectively points out the problems with all the author's assertions.
Firstly, the author argues that direct removal of salt from the lake using desalination methods can solve the problem. By contrast, the lecturer challenges this idea and states that it should be considered that the solid material left behind after the desalination process contains other chemicals as well, like selenium, which is quite toxic. If humans breathe these chemicals, it will be extremely dangerous to them.
Secondly, the author suggests that by adding water from the ocean, which is about 20% less salty, the salt level in the lake can be diluted. Nevertheless, the lecturer brings up the fact that constructing pipelines and canals to deliver the water requires local regulations. Such pipelines over long distances will be so expensive and costly that local governments cannot easily consider this solution.
Lastly, the author asserts that by building walls to break up the lake into several sections, the salinity can be controlled. Conversely, the lecturer refutes this claim too and clarifies that this practice will have short-term consequences since in the case of the next earthquake the walls will be destroyed and as a result, the water with high salinity will be mixed with the water with low salinity. Thus, the whole idea would be ineffective from a long-term perspective.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
conversely, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, thus, well, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 5.04856512141 218% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 17.0 22.412803532 76% => OK
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1344.0 1373.03311258 98% => OK
No of words: 257.0 270.72406181 95% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.22957198444 5.08290768461 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.00390054096 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.75093148528 2.5805825403 107% => OK
Unique words: 149.0 145.348785872 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.579766536965 0.540411800872 107% => OK
syllable_count: 408.6 419.366225166 97% => 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: 12.0 8.23620309051 146% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => 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: 23.0 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 57.7090164403 49.2860985944 117% => OK
Chars per sentence: 122.181818182 110.228320801 111% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.3636363636 21.698381199 108% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.81818181818 7.06452816374 139% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
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: 0.200176461293 0.272083759551 74% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0762444515685 0.0996497079465 77% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0674674302909 0.0662205650399 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.119998975643 0.162205337803 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0258864081622 0.0443174109184 58% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.9 13.3589403974 112% => 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: 13.35 12.2367328918 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.32 8.42419426049 111% => OK
difficult_words: 74.0 63.6247240618 116% => 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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Rates: 90.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 27.0 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.