Writing. Part 2. Домбровская И.В - 18 стр.

                                        17

advantage is that those who are not very well off would be able to afford to go
out more and would have a little more money to spend, which would improve
the quality of their lives. Free public transport would also be a good thing for a
city’s shops and businesses, as bus and underground users would have more
money available to spend on both necessities and luxuries. Lastly, if passengers
travelled free on public, there would be no need for ticket offices, bus
conductors or ticket inspectors. This would make the buses and undergrounds
much cheaper to run.
        On the other hand, there are several arguments against abolishing fares.
To begin with, if there were no fares, the city council would have to find another
way of financing public transport, probably by increasing the city’s rates. As a
result, a lot of people who never travel by public transport would be helping to
pay for a service which they do not use, which many would consider unfair and
which would also make these people worse off. What is more, if the number of

passengers increased dramatically because of the abolition of fares, it would
probably be necessary to increase the number of buses and trains. This would
make free public transport even more expensive to operate. Finally, the abolition
of fares would lead to the loss of several thousand jobs among those public
transport staff who sell or inspect tickets, which is clearly undesirable in these
times of high unemployment.
        On balance, I am in favour of the idea of free public transport in our
cities provided that alternative employment could be found for those workers
whose jobs would become redundant.

                                     Analysis
Complete the following summary of each paragraph.
Paragraph 1 The writer introduces the subject of the essay by explaining that in
most cities public transport fares are fairly cheap but that some people think that
________________________________________________________________.
He /She then tells the reader that ______________________________________
________________________________________________________________.
Paragraph 2 The writer gives the arguments ________________________ free
public transport and explains what the advantages would be.
Paragraph 3 The writer gives _____________________ free public transport
and explains what ____________ would be.
Paragraph 4 The writer concludes the essay by giving his own
______________ the idea of abolishing fares.


Exercise 13
Read the following composition and list the advantages and
disadvantages. Then underline all the linking words and state what these
words are used for e.g. to add more points on a topic, to express effect etc.