▶ Your Answer :
Both reading and the listening passage deal with the same topic on population decline of sea otters. The reading passage asserts that population decrease in sea otters is due to pollution. In contrary, the listening lecture directly opposites the reading by asserting that predation was the main cause. First, the author in the reading mentions that the pollution was the most likely cause for the population decline such as the known pollution sources like oil rigs along the Alaska coast. On the other hand, the speaker rebuffs by claiming that predation was the reason. If pollution was the reason, there must be many dead sea otters left behind but were seldom found. This is mainly because sea otters were killed and eaten right away.
Secondly, the writer describes that pollution is the culprit as it resulted in decline of other sea mammals such as seals in the same region. It shows pollution has affected surrounding environment as well. In contrast, the lecturer rebuts the writer by insisting that orcas started to hunt more sea otters that affected population decrease. Due to excessive whale hunting by human, orcas had to seek other accessible food. Therefore, not only just the population pool of sea otters plummeted but also other species’ population declined mentioned in the reading passage. Lastly, the reading passage delineates that pollution hypothesis would also explain the uneven pattern of sea otter decline. Some locations in Alaska, some population of animals remained intact due to uneven concentration of pollutants. The listening, however, counters the reading passage by illustrating that uneven population is due to orcas predation. Some regions that were hard to be reached by orcas, the population of sea otters remained very stable. |