The means of transportation has changed and improved over many centuries. Long ago, during the times of the kings and knights, animals such as horses, buffaloes and camels were used by man for transportation purposes. These animals no doubt did save man from traveling by foot, they took a long time to complete the journeys, especially when transporting goods.
In 1825, George Stephenson's opening of the first railway marked a significant progress in the history of transportation. Railways were in popular demand because they could carry more people and loads. More importantly, they ran faster than animals. Railways improved the communication networks and hence, imports and exports of goods and people traveling out of their towns or even countries to work were made possible. Unfortunately, since the invention of motor vehicles, the popularity of railways has declined.
Motor vehicles were first invented in the eighteenth century. These vehicles were preferred by many people as they do not run on tracks and hence do not have fixed routes. Travelers can then plan their own routes to suit their convenience. This is especially so when the destinations are places like small towns or remote areas. In these places, few or even none of the trains ever reach them; so traveling by the motor vehicle would solve this problem. Over many years of modifications, the motor vehicle is now one of the most commonly used means of transportation. Today, we travel in cars, taxis, buses, lorries or vans almost every day.
Another form of transportation is by water. It may be the slowest but definitely the cheapest form of bulk transportation. Though over the centuries of innovations, water transportation has improved from the ancient wind dependent yachts to the modern motor driven ships, journeys by water are still characterized by the dangers and unpredictability of meeting natural disasters like the storms.
The evolution of world transportation has reached its pinnacle with the invention of airplanes. Transportation by planes is the easiest and fastest. Planes gliding smoothly in the air, are not obstructed by seas, hills, buildings and so on. Though convenient, this means of transport is the most expensive. Despite the popular demand, the transportation network of the planes is still not a balanced and complete one till today. Developed countries tend to make use of air transportation more frequently than the less developed ones as they do more exporting and importing of goods and also have more people traveling to and fro their countries. Hence, the networks in these developed countries are denser.
The excerpt mainly discusses the development of transportation. In medieval times, animals, while lacking in speed, provided man with transportation. 1825 saw a milestone for transportation advancement, with the first railway being opened by George Stephenson. Because of their increased speed and capacity, these railways soon proved to be popular, but they were supplanted by motor vehicles, which emerged in the 18th century. As they do not require dedicated infrastructure and lack fixed routes, motorised vehicles soon came into regular usage. Also witnessing considerable progress was water transportation, which trades speed for low costs. Despite advances in technology, water-based vehicles still have to deal with the unpredictability of nature. However, it was the invention and proliferation of convenient yet costly aeroplanes that saw transportation truly reaching its heights.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 8 15
No. of Words: 128 350
No. of Characters: 745 1500
No. of Different Words: 99 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 3.364 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.82 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.306 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 55 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 47 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 34 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 24 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 16 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.292 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.75 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.395 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.395 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.04 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5