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.
In the lecture, the lecturer states the reasons why the United States government should not sell Amtrak by mentioning the flaws made in the reading.
First, the government is not owning Amtrak for profits but keeping the citizen's rights. It might be true that, as the passage suggests, maintaining routs causes the government to lose money every year, but it is indispensable for the government to keep it because people in remote areas possess as much right as citizens living in accessible areas. This directly argues the point made by the author of the article.
Second, the transportation companies also get massive amount of financial support. While the writer explains how unfair it is to own Amtrak to other transportation companies, the lecturer insists that these private companies also get myriads support from the government. For instance, airlines rely on financial support for their airline control building, the officers as well as the satellite that forecasts weather. It is undoubtedly fair for the government to keep Amtrak.
Third, the government should spend even more money on improving Amtrak. The article explains how rail travel is uncommon in the U.S., but it is because of the fact that Amtrak is out of date. In Japan and Europe, governments invested money on high speed train and they are successfully used by many travelers. The U.S. government should invest more money for Amtrak to have more affordable and fast transportations.
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 23, Rule ID: PROGRESSIVE_VERBS[1]
Message: This verb is normally not used in the progressive form. Try a simple form instead.
... in the reading. First, the government is not owning Amtrak for profits but keeping the citi...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 144, Rule ID: BECAUSE_OF_THE_FACT_THAT[1]
Message: This phrase is redundant. Use simply 'because'.
Suggestion: because
...avel is uncommon in the U.S., but it is because of the fact that Amtrak is out of date. In Japan and Eur...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, second, so, third, well, while, for instance, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 4.0 12.0772626932 33% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 14.0 22.412803532 62% => OK
Preposition: 23.0 30.3222958057 76% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 5.01324503311 219% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1225.0 1373.03311258 89% => OK
No of words: 237.0 270.72406181 88% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.16877637131 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.92362132708 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.78719371205 2.5805825403 108% => OK
Unique words: 136.0 145.348785872 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.573839662447 0.540411800872 106% => OK
syllable_count: 369.9 419.366225166 88% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 56.058501189 49.2860985944 114% => OK
Chars per sentence: 102.083333333 110.228320801 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.75 21.698381199 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.16666666667 7.06452816374 87% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 4.33554083885 185% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.315332113941 0.272083759551 116% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.119139758941 0.0996497079465 120% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0859876731471 0.0662205650399 130% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.185888417918 0.162205337803 115% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0335305521882 0.0443174109184 76% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.8 13.3589403974 96% => OK
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: 12.71 12.2367328918 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.84 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 64.0 63.6247240618 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 81.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.5 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.