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Directions: Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how
they challenge the specific points made in the reading passage.
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 article and the lecture are both about the option of selling Amtrak, an intercity train service, which is own by the government, to a private company. While the author of the reading offers three specific reasons for thinking that if should be sold, the lecturer opposes the writer’s concerns. In her opinion, Amtrak should be owned by the government.
First, the writer claims that the government loses money on Amtrak, due to the fact that it is not used by enough number of passengers. Furthermore, hit is stated in the text that it loses up to hundreds of millions of dollars every year. In contrast, the professor argues that the low price of tickets has purpose, in fact, the government doesn’t aim to make profit, it just wants to provide a good service for people who live in remoted areas. Additionally, she highlights that those people are just like others who live in big cities and it would be unfair to cut them the opportunity to travel by low prices.
Second, the author asserts that the government is unfair to private airlines companies, as it doesn’t give them any money so that they can lower their tickets’ prices. As opposed to this argument, the lecturer maintains that United States in fact supports the airline companies by paying for many of their buildings and other things. Moreover, she claims that these companies couldn’t exist without the government’s support.
Finally, the writer states that travelling by train is not popular and less then one percent of citizens use these services, because the majority of people prefer travelling by their own cars. Therefore, the author claims that it would better if the government improved the highway system. However, the professor calls this argument into a question by saying that Amtrak system is just out of date and needs some more money for improvement the service. She also mentions the example of Japan and Europe which improved their railway system and therefore made it more popular.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-08-31 | madinaaaaaaaaaa | 80 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 4, column 77, Rule ID: COMP_THAN[2]
Message: Comparison requires 'than', not 'then' nor 'as'.
Suggestion: than
...elling by train is not popular and less then one percent of citizens use these servi...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, furthermore, however, if, moreover, second, so, then, therefore, while, in contrast, in fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 22.412803532 161% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 41.0 30.3222958057 135% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 5.01324503311 199% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1654.0 1373.03311258 120% => OK
No of words: 333.0 270.72406181 123% => OK
Chars per words: 4.96696696697 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.27180144563 4.04702891845 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.55635117457 2.5805825403 99% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 145.348785872 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.561561561562 0.540411800872 104% => OK
syllable_count: 497.7 419.366225166 119% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 1.25165562914 320% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 40.5792874682 49.2860985944 82% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.142857143 110.228320801 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.7857142857 21.698381199 110% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.14285714286 7.06452816374 115% => 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 : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.180301468575 0.272083759551 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0596315653336 0.0996497079465 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0391351307775 0.0662205650399 59% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.105015474246 0.162205337803 65% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0529330617932 0.0443174109184 119% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 13.3589403974 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 53.8541721854 105% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.84 12.2367328918 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.9 8.42419426049 106% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 63.6247240618 137% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 10.498013245 107% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.