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.
The auther of the passage and the lecturer both argue over whether the altruistic behavior shown by animals and humans is truely selfless or not. The author of the passage presents several examples where an organism does a huge sacrifice with no personal gain for itself. But the lecturer gainsays these examples and tries to explain the selfishness behind these acts of altruism.
First of all, the author talks about how some human beings donate their kidney to a stranger. This is clearly a sacrifice and there cannot possibly be any personal gain for that person. But the lecturer presents a contrasting argument that the person donating the kidney is receiving appreciation and approval from the society and the stranger. This increases the self worth of the person in society. Hence, this non material reward might be what motivates some people to donate their kidney to a complete stranger.
Secondly, the author talks about the meerkats. In a group of meerkats, an individual meerkat acts as a guard while other meerkats hunt for food or eat. The job of this guard meerkat is to alert everyone if it sees a predator approaching. Here the guard meerkat is sacrificing food and even putting its own life in grave danger to help its group. Again, the lecturer repudiates this by presenting a new study which revealed that the guard meerkat normally eats before standing guard. While standing guard, this meerkat is close to the burrow and first one to see the predator. Hence, it is more likely to flee first and be safe from the predator.
Finally, the author presents the idea that the group of meerkat is better able to fend off the predator as they are in group and the single guard meerkat is more vulnerable to the attack of predator. But according to the lecturer this is not the case. The lecturer states that in fact the guard meerkat is safer than the group of meerkats. This is because after hearing the alarm, the other meerkats might gather to form a group or scatter and try to run. Both of these activities will draw the attention of the predator and the predator is more likely to attack the group than the guard meerkat.
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- Some parents offer their school-age children money for each high grade (mark) they get in school.Do you think this is a good idea?Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 60
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?In twenty years there will be fewer cars in use than there are today. 70
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? In order to become financially responsible adults, children should learn to manage their own money at young age. Use specific masons and examples to support your answer. 60
- Toefls ibt test1 Writing Integrated 1 68
- 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 ab 87
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 13, column 539, Rule ID: THE_NN_AND_THE_NN[1]
Message: Did you mean 'are'?
Suggestion: are
...ention of the predator and the predator is more likely to attack the group than th...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, hence, if, second, secondly, so, while, in fact, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 10.4613686534 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 7.30242825607 246% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 7.0 12.0772626932 58% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 44.0 30.3222958057 145% => 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: 1784.0 1373.03311258 130% => OK
No of words: 374.0 270.72406181 138% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.77005347594 5.08290768461 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.3976220399 4.04702891845 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.39154046852 2.5805825403 93% => OK
Unique words: 179.0 145.348785872 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.478609625668 0.540411800872 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 540.9 419.366225166 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.55342163355 90% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 3.25607064018 184% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.51434878587 198% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 13.0662251656 153% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 37.0351184688 49.2860985944 75% => OK
Chars per sentence: 89.2 110.228320801 81% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.7 21.698381199 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.1 7.06452816374 58% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 4.33554083885 185% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.27373068433 140% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.139315403036 0.272083759551 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0409095761579 0.0996497079465 41% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0512099514582 0.0662205650399 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0931871430681 0.162205337803 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0765035165693 0.0443174109184 173% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.4 13.3589403974 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 70.13 53.8541721854 130% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 7.9 11.0289183223 72% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.39 12.2367328918 85% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.32 8.42419426049 87% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 63.6247240618 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.