50. An ancient, traditional remedy for insomnia—the scent of lavender flowers—has now been proved effective. In a recent study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored electronically. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. At the beginning of the second week, the volunteers discontinued their sleeping medication. During that week, they slept less soundly than the previous week and felt even more tired. During the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two weeks. Therefore, the study proves that lavender cures insomnia within a short period of time.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
In the argument above, the author concludes that it is the lavender that cures the patients’ insomnia with a short period of time. It seems at first glance to be an obvious conclusion based on the study of 30 volunteers in the controlled room. However, close scrutiny of the argument, rife with holes of evidence, reveals how groundless the conclusion is.
First and foremost, the author does not provide the evidence to guarantee the people at the same experimental condition wouldn’t have the same reaction as the thirty volunteers. With the absence of the control group, we cannot preclude the effect of the environment. In order to prove the influence of lavender on the volunteers the experiment should set an group just in the environment in which every condition is the same as the experimental one but lacking the lavender.
In addition, no evidence is provided to reveal that it is not the physiological change or the tiredness that cause the third week’s improvement. In a controlled experimental condition, the patients are aware the fact whether they take their usual sleeping medicine and they are tested with the lavender-scented pillows. So it can affect the physiology of the volunteers which intimates themselves they would have insomnia without the sleeping medicine and the lavender would contribute to a good sleep. Moreover, after the first two week’s tiredness the patients would be easier to have a better sleep, which indicates the melioration in the third week may not caused by the lavender.
Finally, even though all the foregoing evidence is offered by the author, the argument is still unconvincing because the promotion of the sleeping quality is compared with the first two week, but not with the normal people. Even if there is improvement, it cannot be proved the insomnia iscured. The results of the experiment only refers the longer and more soundly sleep, which obviously cannot be considered as a indication of being cured.
As it stands, though lavender is plausible contribute to cure insomnia, the argument is based on the insufficient evidence. To corroborate the argument, the author should offer the evidence of the results of another control group and the rule out the effect of physiology or the tiredness in the first two group. Additionally, evidence which comparing the sleeping quality of the third group with the normal people should be given. Without these necessary evidence, the argument is unwarranted.作者: 普渡哥 时间: 2012-5-7 23:05
提纲不错。字数也够了吧？你想写多少？作者: zhouyue0223 时间: 2012-5-8 08:22