TOEFL INTEGRATED WRITING TASK - 1

This is a short text I wrote while practicing for my TOEFL Integrated Writing Task.

Altruism, as we can read in the excerpt, is a common habitbehavior among human beings and mammals. ThisIt is described as an act of giving, sharing, and behavingacting for someone else's sake. Sharing food or helping a member of the community or a group is seen as an altruistic act for an individual. The major point beingis the fact that there is nothing in it for himsomeone in behaving this way, except for loosinglosing what he'sthat person is giving away. The reading passage argumentargues this point by giving various examples.; For me, most relevant one among them is the meerkat social habit. When these little mammals gather for eating or hunting, there is one of them that stays stands apart, whatchingwatching over the group. It's a sentinel, placed there in order to warn the group forabout approaching predators.

Here is where the excerpt and the lecture start splittingto split paths. The former states that being a sentinel is an altruistic behavior for a meerkat., tThe latter disproves this belief by pointing out recently discovered facts.

It is true, as it is stated by the passage, that the sentinel is the first in line when a predator approaches, but the lecture points out that, after the utterance of the warning cry, the sentinel is the first to escape and to reach a safe position. Also it's useful to the meerkat group to be warned, states the passage, but teirtheir reaction to the warning may bringlead to a mass movement which would only make predator's attention focus on the meerkats, or notice them if it didnhadn't yet. The last point about meerkats in both sources it'srefers to the sacrifice. It was supposed that the sentinel's role didn't include eating, but it has been found that, even in this case, the sentinel is the first to fullfill up its belly before parting from the group,; so this disproves for the third time the statements of the passage.

As indoes the beginning of the excerpt, in the end of the lecture looks at altruism is looked at from a human point of view.
In cases likesuch as a person donating a kidney to a family member or a complete stranger, both sources agrees, it is an act of altruism. The passage states that this is not rewarded in any way, but the teacher in the lecture points out non material rewards can be seekedobtained from donors. For some people, things like gratitude, appreciation, and self esteem may be a valuable adand worthy reward for the sacrifice neededfrom from the altruist. [Ho provato cambiare il minimo.]