Like many creatures, humpback whales migrate long distances for feeding and mating purposes. How animals manage to migrate long distances is often puzzling. In the case of humpback whales, we may have found the answer: they may be navigating by the stars, much as early human sailors did. What we know about humpback whales makes this a distinct possibility.
First, humpback whales seem to be intelligent enough to use stars to navigate by. Whales' brains have a high degree of complexity'a common determiner of intelligence. This suggests that the whales' brain power far exceeds that of most other animals. The whales' well-developed cognitive ability seems to provide a sound basis for the ability to use a complex, abstract system of sensory stimuli such as the night sky for orientation.
Second, humpback whales migrate in straight lines. Animals can maintain movement in a straight direction for long distances only if they orient themselves by some external objects or forces. Many birds and other terrestrial creatures, for example, use physical landmarks to help them stay on track as they migrate. Whales, which swim in the open ocean, cannot rely on land features; they could, however, rely on stars at night to provide them with external signs by which to maintain direction over long distances.
Third, humpback whales exhibit an unusual behavior: they are sometimes observed floating straight up for minutes at a time, their heads above the water as though they were looking upward. The behavior is known as spy-hopping, and it is very rare among marine animals. One explanation for the function of spy-hopping is that the whales are looking at the stars, which are providing them with information to navigate by.
Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.
The theory that humpback whales use the stars to navigate the open seas is a fascinating one. But the evidence supporting the theory is not very convincing.
First, there doesn’t seem to be any real connection between intelligence and an animal’s ability to use stars for navigation. You know, there are other animals that use stars to navigate. Some birds have this ability—like ducks, for example. Now, the general cognitive ability of ducks is only average—they are not highly intelligent. The fact that the ducks evolved the ability to use stars for navigation does not seem to have much of a connection to their overall intelligence. It’s just an instinct they were born with, not a sign of intelligence. So, the fact that humpback whales happen to be intelligent does not make them particularly likely to use stars for navigation. The two things just don’t seem to be connected.
Second, there may be a different explanation for the humpback whales’ ability to navigate in straight lines. Remember that for animals to be able to do this, they have to sense some external object or force. Well, the external force the whales could be sensing is Earth’s magnetic field. Humpback whales have a substance in their brains called biomagnetite.
Generally, the presence of biomagnetite in an animal’s body makes that animal sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field. The fact that there’s biomagnetite in the brains of humpback whales suggests that they orient themselves by the magnetic field rather than the stars when they migrate.
Third, spy-hopping probably has nothing to do with looking at stars. Spy-hopping is rare, but there are other animals that exhibit it. Some sharks do it for example. But sharks don’t migrate or look at stars. Sharks spy-hop to look for animals they want to hunt. And another thing: humpback whales often spy-hop during the day when no stars can be seen. So to suggest that the function of spy-hopping is to look at stars is pure speculation.
Both the reading and the lecture is about the hypothesis that humpback whales may navigate by the stars. The author of the reading believes that the hypothesis is true, while the lecturer casts doubt on the claims made by the author. There are three aspects where the two materials diverge.
First, the author points out that humpback whales are intelligent enough to navigate by stars. The lecturer, however, challenges the connection between cognitive abilities of animals and abilities to star navigation. He mentions that there are some animals, such as ducks, which are capable of star navigations but do not show high intelligence. The lecturer therefore argues that the ability to star navigation may be an instinct and is not related to high intelligence.
Second, the author contends that humpback whales migrate in straight lines, and given that there is no landmark in the open ocean, humpback whales rely on star to navigate. In contrast, the lecturer rebuts the argument. He mentions that, in order to migrate in straight lines, animals either need external objects or external forces. In the case of humpback whales, they might be using the external force, or to be more specific, the magnetic field of the Earth, to navigate. There are organs in the brains of the humpback whales to help them sense the magnetic field and therefore navigate by it.
Finally, the author states that humpback whales demonstrate a behavior known as spy-hopping, and a plausible explanation for this behavior is that they are looking at the stars. The lecturer, on the other hand, reject this explanation. First, there are some other animals also do spy-hopping but do not migrate. A notable example is that sharks do spy-hopping when hunting. In addition, humpback whales also do spy-hopping during the daytime when the stars are not visible. Therefore, the lectures maintain that the assertion that spy-hopping is for looking at stars is a pure speculation.
In summary, the ideas of the author contradicts thoses of the lecturer, and the lecturer rejects all three arguments provided by the author.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, look, may, second, so, therefore, while, in addition, in contrast, in summary, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 10.4613686534 182% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 7.30242825607 151% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 22.412803532 94% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 30.3222958057 132% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 5.01324503311 219% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1765.0 1373.03311258 129% => OK
No of words: 343.0 270.72406181 127% => OK
Chars per words: 5.14577259475 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.30351707066 4.04702891845 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.69684500777 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 160.0 145.348785872 110% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.466472303207 0.540411800872 86% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 543.6 419.366225166 130% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.23620309051 146% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.51434878587 264% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 7.0 2.5761589404 272% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 13.0662251656 145% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 36.4097944267 49.2860985944 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 92.8947368421 110.228320801 84% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.0526315789 21.698381199 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.63157894737 7.06452816374 108% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.27373068433 211% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.235350460277 0.272083759551 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0710438237134 0.0996497079465 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0677002236726 0.0662205650399 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.114941555153 0.162205337803 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0744305058934 0.0443174109184 168% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.9 13.3589403974 89% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 53.8541721854 99% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.29 12.2367328918 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.17 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 63.6247240618 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 10.7273730684 79% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, look, may, second, so, therefore, while, in addition, in contrast, in summary, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 10.4613686534 182% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 7.30242825607 151% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 22.412803532 94% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 30.3222958057 132% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 5.01324503311 219% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1765.0 1373.03311258 129% => OK
No of words: 343.0 270.72406181 127% => OK
Chars per words: 5.14577259475 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.30351707066 4.04702891845 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.69684500777 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 160.0 145.348785872 110% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.466472303207 0.540411800872 86% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 543.6 419.366225166 130% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.23620309051 146% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.51434878587 264% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 7.0 2.5761589404 272% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 13.0662251656 145% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 36.4097944267 49.2860985944 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 92.8947368421 110.228320801 84% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.0526315789 21.698381199 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.63157894737 7.06452816374 108% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.27373068433 211% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.235350460277 0.272083759551 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0710438237134 0.0996497079465 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0677002236726 0.0662205650399 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.114941555153 0.162205337803 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0744305058934 0.0443174109184 168% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.9 13.3589403974 89% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 53.8541721854 99% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.29 12.2367328918 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.17 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 63.6247240618 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 10.7273730684 79% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.