▶ Your Answer :According to the reading, there is ample support for the author's claim that there are certain reasons why whales become stranded. However, the professor in the lecture gives several reasons as a rebuttal to the author's point.
First, the professor insists that the claim that whales get stranded is not accurate. Certain wind pattern cannot explain whales stranding which takes place anywhere. For instance, even though, the current flow away from the land in the eastern coast of US, the whales are often trapped there. This casts doubt on the reading passage's claim that wind patterns make whales go to ashore.
Second, the professor contends that it is questionable that whales with illness become stranded since healthy whale also got stuck. For example, when volunteer push whales to the ocean, some whales are able to swim back to the water. It means that they are enough healthy to swim by themselves. This counters the reading passage's assertion that illness is one reason of whale stranding.
Finally, the professor argues that geological features of coast line are not factors of whale stranding. Since all whales have similar sonar beams, it is absurd that only some whales are stranded. Also, whales who live shallow water rarely are stranded. This refutes the reading passage's suggestion that whale's sonar beam do not reflect properly because of the gentle slope of ocean floor, and result in whales stranding. |