Sea otters are a small mammal that lives in the waters along North America's west coast from California to Alaska. A few years ago some of the sea otter populations off of the Alaskan coast started to decline rapidly and raised several concerns because of their important role in the coastal ecosystem. Experts began investigating and came up with two possible explanations. One explanation was environmental pollution and the second was attacks by predators.
At first it seemed as if the pollution was the most likely cause for the population decline. One reason pollution was more likely was because of the known pollution sources along the Alaskan coast such as oil rigs. Also water samples taken in the area showed increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters' immune systems and indirectly result in their deaths.
Another thing that pointed to pollution as the culprit was the decline of other sea mammals such as seals in the same areas. This indicated that whatever was affecting the otters was also affecting the other sea mammals. Environmental pollution usually affects an entire ecosystem instead of just one species. Only predators that occurred in a large area, such as orcas (a large predatory whale), could cause the same effect, but they usually hunt larger prey.
Finally, scientists believed the pollution hypothesis would also explain the uneven pattern of otter decline. In some Alaskan locations the otter population declined greatly while other populations remained stable. Some experts suggested this could be explained by ocean currents, or other environmental factor, might have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast.
The reading article and lecture talks about sea otter populations off of the Alaskan coast started to decline rapidly and raised several concerns because of their important role in the coastal ecosystem. The passage points out two possible explanations. On the contrary speaker claims that predation is the main reason for the declination of sea otters.
Initially, the passage depicts that pollution is the prominent cause of the population decrease. The known pollution sources identified along the Alaskan coast such as oil rigs. Water samples were taken in the area shown increased levels of chemicals which affected the otters' immune systems badly and indirectly resulted in their deaths. But the speaker disagrees with the idea and describes the predation as the major reason for declination and founding of otters at the offshore.
Nextly, environmental pollution affected an entire ecosystem instead of just one species. So fall off experienced in the number of other sea mammals such as seals in the same areas. The speaker refutes the text that orcas hunt whales, as these are not available due to an imbalance in the ecosystem, so preying on other mammals initiated.
Lastly, the passage portrays that oceanic currents or certain other environmental factors resulted in odd concentrations of pollutants along the coast. The speaker disagrees with the fact and claims that more otter hunting experienced by orcas in highly dense areas, despite the shallow rocky locations, which are not accessible to orcas.
In conclusion, although both the passage and lecture talking about population degrowth of sea otters, the main points stipulated in reading is opposed by leacturer.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, if, lastly, so, in conclusion, such as, talking about, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 6.0 10.4613686534 57% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 0.0 5.04856512141 0% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 12.0772626932 58% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 8.0 22.412803532 36% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 30.3222958057 125% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 5.01324503311 199% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1423.0 1373.03311258 104% => OK
No of words: 265.0 270.72406181 98% => OK
Chars per words: 5.36981132075 5.08290768461 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.03470204552 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73166889501 2.5805825403 106% => OK
Unique words: 153.0 145.348785872 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.577358490566 0.540411800872 107% => OK
syllable_count: 441.0 419.366225166 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 3.25607064018 0% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.8470114709 49.2860985944 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.461538462 110.228320801 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.3846153846 21.698381199 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.76923076923 7.06452816374 82% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => 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: 0.244158133221 0.272083759551 90% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0775595070881 0.0996497079465 78% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0860006399121 0.0662205650399 130% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.127671123561 0.162205337803 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0892726304747 0.0443174109184 201% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 13.3589403974 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.72 53.8541721854 79% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 11.0289183223 112% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.87 12.2367328918 113% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.4 8.42419426049 112% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 63.6247240618 126% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 10.7273730684 79% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 88.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 26.5 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.