Ethanol fuel, made from plants such as corn and sugar cane, has been advocated by some people as an alternative to gasoline in the United States. However, many critics argue that ethanol is not a good replacement for gasoline for several reasons.
First, the increased use of ethanol fuel would not help to solve one of the biggest environmental problems caused by gasoline use: global warming. Like gasoline, ethanol releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it is burned for fuel and carbon dioxide is greenhouse gas: it helps trap heat in the atmosphere. Thus, ethanol offers no environmental advantage over gasoline.
Second, the production of significant amounts of ethanol would dramatically reduce the amount of plants available for uses other fuel. For example, much of the corn now grown in the United States is used to feed farm animals such as cows and chickens. It is estimated that if ethanol were used to satisfy just 10 percent of the fuel needs in the United States, more than 60 percent of the corn currently grown in the united stated would have to be used to produce ethanol. If most of the corn were used to produce ethanol, a substantial source of food for animals would disappear.
Third, ethanol fuel will never be able to compete with gasoline on price. Although the prices of ethanol and gasoline for the consumer are currently about the same, this is only because of the help in the form of tax subsidies given to ethanol producers by the United States government. These tax subsidies have cost the United States government over $11 billion in the past 30 years. If the United States government were to stop helping producers in this way, the price of ethanol would increase greatly.
The reading states that ethanol should not be replaced for gasoline and provides three reasons of support. However, the professor explains that ethanol is an excellent alternative and refutes each of the author's claims.
First, the article claims that the use of ethanol would not resolve the major concern caused by gasoline, the global warming, because ethanol releases as much carbon dioxide as gasoline does. Therefore, ethanol won't offer any environmental benefits. The professor refutes this point by saying that ethanol could be used by planting more corn plants. He mentions that these growing plants would absorb the carbon dioxide generates by the ethanol.
Second, the reading posits that the use of ethanol could decrease significantly the availability of animal's food, yet corn is used to provide nutrition to chickens and cows. However, the professor says that ethanol can be used without affecting animal's food supplies. According to the professor, to produce ethanol, we could use cellulose, which is part of the plant's wall that the animals can't digest. Thus, by using cellulose, animal's food is not reduced.
Third, the article says that ethanol is not competitive with gasoline in terms of costs. Furthermore, the U.S government subsidizes the prices of ethanol, but if ethanol becomes commercial for sale, the cost of ethanol will go up immediately. The professor opposes to this point by explaining that the ethanol's support by the government won't be needed any longer when ethanol be mass produced. We also learn that by the time the demand of ethanol increases, the ethanol's costs will be reduced greatly, which will make it competitive against the price of gasoline
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when ethanol be mass produced.
when ethanol is mass produced.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 26 in 30
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 14 12
No. of Words: 274 250
No. of Characters: 1398 1200
No. of Different Words: 140 150
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.069 4.2
Average Word Length: 5.102 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.558 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 114 80
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 94 60
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 49 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 29 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.571 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.129 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.643 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.411 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.599 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.154 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 4