[求助]AA010,请大家again扔砖头：-）

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The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.

“This past winter, 200 students from Waymarsh State College traveled to the state capitol building to protest against proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs. The other 12,000 Waymarsh students evidently weren’t so concerned about their education: they either stayed on campus or left for winter break. Since the group who did not protest is far more numerous, it is more representative of the state’s college students than are the protesters. Therefore the state legislature need not heed the appeals of the protesting students.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

In this argument, the author advocates the conclusion that the state legislature does not need to heed the appeals of the students who protest the proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs. The author bases the conclusion on the evidence that only 200 students participated the protest while the other 12,000 did not. This reasoning is somewhat convincing at 这次要加the哈first glance, however, a further reflection reveals the three critical fallacies it suffers from.  75

In the first place, the author provides the number of students who participate时态要前后呼应 to support the conclusion. However, he/she does not offer any evidence to show that the 200 students only represent themselves. It is possible that all of the students do not agree the cuts in funding for various state college programs and they elected 200 students from the 14,000 to represent the whole school. Therefore, although only 200 students form Waymarsh State College traveled to the state capital building to protests, they actually show这里也是 the attitude of the whole school. Accordingly, only focusing on the absolute number may distort the truth and make the final conclusion unwarranted.   109

On the second place, author proceeds as if that the students agree the policy, which by itself is enough to guarantee that the students will not participate the travel of protesting,

这句感觉别扭啊。逻辑好象反了而且不大通顺。The author asserts that the behaviour not to participated in the protest itself can guarantee the students' indifference with the the policy. However, this allegation is apparently wrong. 这样会不会好些？

is the only condition under which the they will not go. However, this assumption is ungrounded and overlooks other possibilities. For example, the students may have to stay on campus to study or go home to stay with their families. 这里的时态怎么都一般了呢？不大呼应吧？Thus, even if they want to go to protest, they can not go. Consequently, the evidence showed by the author does not naturally indicate that they students who did not protest would agree such cuts.   106

Last but not least, the author provides no evidence to show that the suggestion for the students who protested is not important. However, it is possible that although the 200 students is only a small part of students in the Waymarsh State College, they can influence the policies of the state. For example, they may have parents who are politics or entrepreneurs who would help them to protest, and who may significantly influence the decision of the state legislature. 介个理由不大好吧？美国不是民主国家吗？批卷的老师似乎不会认同的说。Therefore, the author can not take for granted that the students should not be concerned without denying such possibilities.   98

As it stands, the conclusion is unwarranted and misleading because the three fallacies. To make it more logically satisfactory, the author should provide more information about questions such as do the 200 students represent the whole school, how about the attitude of the other 12,000 students and how about the 200 students’ backgrounds. Only then can we ultimately accept the conclusion proposed by the author in this argument.  68