The reading and the lecture are both about Amtrak, which is an intercity rail transportation service run by the government. While the author of the reading passage argues that Amtrak should be sold to a private company and the government should not spend so much money on it, the professor disputes this claim. She casts doubt on the main point mentioned in the article by providing three controversial reasons.
In the text, the writer begins by saying that the government wastes so much money on many Amtrak routes in remote areas. The private company would cut these routes and save so much money. However, the professor disagrees with this idea. She asserts that the critics of Amtrak fail to understand the main point of the existence of this transportation system. The main goal of Amtrak is to provide services for U.S. citizens rather than make a profit. It is true that maintaining the routes in remote areas is expensive. Still, people living in these areas are entitled to have transportation services just like people living in more accessible regions have. It is so wrong to cut these routes.
Furthermore, according to the essay, the government's prejudiced actions and funding in favor of Amtrak make airlines and other private companies unable to compete with Amtrak. On the other hand, the professor points out that this criticism is ridiculous. The government always supports airlines financially. The government pays for building air traffic control towers, for airline officers, and even for weather satellites on which airlines and aircraft rely to operate safely. In fact, if not for the government's financial support, no airline would exist at all.
Finally, the author believes that the government should spend its money on private cars and highways system since it is the most popular mode of transportation. Not surprisingly, the professor refutes this assertion by contending that the main reason people use private cars more than Amtrak is that Amtrak system and trains are out of date and decrepit. If the government invests more money in Amtrak and substitutes its trains with more affordable and faster ones, people will use this mode of transportation instead of using their cars. People in Europe and Japan use rail transportation systems more than their cars due to its fast and up-to-date trains.
To sum up, both the lecturer and the author hold conflicting views on whether Amtrak should be run by the government or a private company.
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement Teachers should not make their social or political views known to students in the classroom Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 73
- Amtrak is an intercity train service currently owned by the United States government There are a number of critics who believe that the government should not own Amtrak and that Amtrak should be sold to a privately owned company These critics put forward 73
- In the United States it had been common practice since the late 1960s no to suppress natural forest fires The let it burn policy assumed that forest fire would burn themselves out quickly without causing much damage However in the summer of 1988 forest fi 80
- Scientists are considering the possibility of sending humans to Mars in the coming decades Although there have been successful manned missions to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s Mars is 150 times further away from Earth than the Moon is Thus the project o 3
- Some parents offer their school age children money for each high grade mark they get in school Do you think this is a good idea 85
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, furthermore, however, if, so, still, while, in fact, it is true, to sum up, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 7.30242825607 219% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 53.0 30.3222958057 175% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 5.01324503311 319% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2076.0 1373.03311258 151% => OK
No of words: 407.0 270.72406181 150% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.10073710074 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.49157444576 4.04702891845 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72014252656 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 199.0 145.348785872 137% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.488943488943 0.540411800872 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 631.8 419.366225166 151% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.23620309051 146% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 13.0662251656 161% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.8366456935 49.2860985944 97% => OK
Chars per sentence: 98.8571428571 110.228320801 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.380952381 21.698381199 89% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.85714285714 7.06452816374 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 4.33554083885 208% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 4.45695364238 179% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.292431469872 0.272083759551 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.08671881701 0.0996497079465 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0700799743604 0.0662205650399 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.177789453132 0.162205337803 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0396541029705 0.0443174109184 89% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 13.3589403974 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 53.8541721854 97% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 11.0289183223 97% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.3 12.2367328918 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.34 8.42419426049 99% => OK
difficult_words: 97.0 63.6247240618 152% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => 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
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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:
finally, furthermore, however, if, so, still, while, in fact, it is true, to sum up, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 7.30242825607 219% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 53.0 30.3222958057 175% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 5.01324503311 319% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2076.0 1373.03311258 151% => OK
No of words: 407.0 270.72406181 150% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.10073710074 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.49157444576 4.04702891845 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72014252656 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 199.0 145.348785872 137% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.488943488943 0.540411800872 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 631.8 419.366225166 151% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.23620309051 146% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 13.0662251656 161% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.8366456935 49.2860985944 97% => OK
Chars per sentence: 98.8571428571 110.228320801 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.380952381 21.698381199 89% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.85714285714 7.06452816374 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 4.33554083885 208% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 4.45695364238 179% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.292431469872 0.272083759551 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.08671881701 0.0996497079465 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0700799743604 0.0662205650399 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.177789453132 0.162205337803 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0396541029705 0.0443174109184 89% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 13.3589403974 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 53.8541721854 97% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 11.0289183223 97% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.3 12.2367328918 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.34 8.42419426049 99% => OK
difficult_words: 97.0 63.6247240618 152% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => 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.