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.
Recently, there has been a ton of debate regarding the reason for rapid decline of sea otter population along the Alaskan coast, which has imbalanced the coastal ecosystem. The author in the passages claims that environmental pollution is the main cause for languish of otter population, not the threat of precarious predators. In the listening passage, the lecturer is quick to point out there are some serious flaws in writers claims. In fact, professor believes that existence of dangerous predators in the Alaskan coast, based on the recent online investigations, is the main reason for otter population decrease, and addresses in detail, the trouble with each point made in reading text.
To begin with, the author of the reading states that water samples in the Alaskan Coast contained high concentration of toxic chemicals from oil rigs which damage the immune system of otters and thus resulted in their death. In the listening, the professor challenges the writers claim, by arguing that otters body are seldom found on the shores, if it was death by environmental pollution, the body of the otters should be found washed up on the shores, which is not the case. Hence, otters death are predominantly due to predator hunting and not the increased level of pollution in Alaskan coast.
Secondly, the writer believes that predators like Orcas only hunt on larger prey like the whales and spare the tiny creatures like sea otters and seals. The lecturer, however, rebuts this by mentioning that, recently the whale population has declined in the Alaskan coast due to human hunting, because of which many orcas are now feeding on animals like sea otters and seals to fill up their stomach.
Finally, the author posits that, since the population decline is uneven, with certain area experiencing rapid decline compared to other areas which remain stable, it has to be because of ocean currents causing uneven concentration of toxic chemicals in the Alaskan waters. Not surprisingly, the lecturer takes issue with this claim by contending that, this uneven pattern of otter population decline is based on the predator hunting grounds. Population of otters is stable in shallow rocky areas where orcas cannot access them, and declining in areas where the otters and seals are easily accessible to predator orcas.
To sum up, both the writer and professor hold conflicting views about the reason for sea otter population languish in the Alaskan coast.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-02-13 | zaid | 73 | view |
| 2022-12-06 | Naveena0 | 73 | view |
| 2022-12-06 | Vincent Samuel | 80 | view |
| 2022-12-06 | Naveena0 | 71 | view |
| 2022-11-16 | rpinisetti8 | 80 | view |
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, hence, however, if, regarding, second, secondly, so, thus, as to, in fact, to begin with, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 10.4613686534 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 16.0 22.412803532 71% => OK
Preposition: 67.0 30.3222958057 221% => Less preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 14.0 5.01324503311 279% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2064.0 1373.03311258 150% => OK
No of words: 401.0 270.72406181 148% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.14713216958 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.47492842339 4.04702891845 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.59982208648 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 197.0 145.348785872 136% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.491271820449 0.540411800872 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 637.2 419.366225166 152% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 9.0 2.5761589404 349% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 30.0 21.2450331126 141% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 53.6319916891 49.2860985944 109% => OK
Chars per sentence: 158.769230769 110.228320801 144% => OK
Words per sentence: 30.8461538462 21.698381199 142% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.69230769231 7.06452816374 123% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.27373068433 23% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.291826453372 0.272083759551 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.11511494357 0.0996497079465 116% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0647047137435 0.0662205650399 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.173902950815 0.162205337803 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0255167788775 0.0443174109184 58% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.3 13.3589403974 137% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.03 53.8541721854 76% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.0 11.0289183223 136% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.18 12.2367328918 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.94 8.42419426049 106% => OK
difficult_words: 97.0 63.6247240618 152% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 10.7273730684 135% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.0 10.498013245 133% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.2008830022 134% => 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.