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 several arguments to support their position. First, the critics point out that the government loses money on many Amtrak routes. In its effort to serve citizens in all parts of the country, Amtrak maintains routes even in remote and less populated areas. Those routes are not used by enough passengers to cover the cost of maintaining them. The amount of money lost every year due to underuse is sizeable: the government loses up to several hundred dollars per passenger on some routes: and the total losses due to underuse add up to hundreds of millions of dollars every year If Amtrak was privatized, these unprofitable routes could be cut. Second, government ownership of Amtrak is unfair to privately owned transportation companies such as airlines Government funding of Amtrak means that ticket prices on Amtrak are cheaper than they otherwise would be. However, the government does not give airline companies money so they can lower their ticket prices. This situation clearly is unfair to airlines and other private transportation companies because they must compete against trains for customers. Third, critics maintain that if the government wants to support national transportation, it should spend its money elsewhere Rail travel is relatively unimportant in the United States: Amtrak currently transports less than 1 percent of the people traveling between cities. A large majority of intercity travelers use other means of transport, such as private cars. The critics argue that rather than finance Amtrak, the government should direct its funding at maintaining and improving the highway system so that intercity car travel becomes faster and more efficient.
The reading passage indicates that the government should not continue to maintain intercity train service Amtrak and sell it to a private company. However, based on the listening, it's a completely silly way to do that.
First, the reading claims that it's expensive for the government to operate the underuse route in order to serve all citizens from all over the country. However, the professor in the lecture contradicts what the reading states, she argues that the main purpose of public transportation is to serve all the people, even though they are from remote areas, but they do have as many rights as people living in urban areas.
Second, the author of the passage holds the opinion that it's unfair for private transportation companies when compared with government-funded Amtrak. But the professor in the lecture refutes this point by pointing out the truth, that government support all kinds of transportation systems. For example, it is the government that pays the money for control towers in airlines, their officers. The ground fact is that mass transportation would not even exist without support from the government.
Finally, from the reading, we learn that some critics propose that the government to invest money on highway systems if it really wants to support national transportation. In contrast, the listening challenge its counterpart. It contends that people prefer to drive only because trains are out of date. The professor asserts that if taking trains became affordable and fast, like the high-speed lines in Europe and Japan, many Americans would happily drop their cars to take the trains.
- colonize to asteroids 91
- Younger children should be required to study art and music in addition to math language science and history 75
- your job has more effect on your happiness than your social life does 83
- Some people suggest that it is wrong to give money to beggars asking for money on the street while others think that it is the right thing to do Which point of view do you think is correct and why 76
- salvage logging 71
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 181, Rule ID: IT_IS[6]
Message: Did you mean 'it's' (='it is') instead of 'its' (possessive pronoun)?
Suggestion: it's; it is
...mpany. However, based on the listening, its a completely silly way to do that. F...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, however, if, really, second, so, for example, in contrast
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 5.0 10.4613686534 48% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 22.412803532 120% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 33.0 30.3222958057 109% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 5.01324503311 239% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1370.0 1373.03311258 100% => OK
No of words: 262.0 270.72406181 97% => OK
Chars per words: 5.22900763359 5.08290768461 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.02323427807 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7862281709 2.5805825403 108% => OK
Unique words: 153.0 145.348785872 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.583969465649 0.540411800872 108% => OK
syllable_count: 408.6 419.366225166 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 56.0399163295 49.2860985944 114% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.166666667 110.228320801 104% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.8333333333 21.698381199 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.5 7.06452816374 92% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => 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: 0.14992867049 0.272083759551 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0549488578015 0.0996497079465 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0796367353184 0.0662205650399 120% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.099039353441 0.162205337803 61% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0701987641403 0.0443174109184 158% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 13.3589403974 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 53.8541721854 93% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.05 12.2367328918 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.72 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 67.0 63.6247240618 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 90.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 27.0 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.