在新GRE Argument的茫茫174道题库当中,出现了一类前所未有的instruction(我们姑且称之为“Alternative explanation类”):
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
意译过来就是:针对题目中给描绘的现象,请提出一种或更多的理论假说(这些假说能够和作者给出的理论相抗衡),并阐明它们如何能解释题中的现象。
虽然这类型instruction的数目不多,仅为10道,但却非常值得重视。究其原因还是它们需要用一种全新的、不同于老G挑错找茬的视角和思维方式。我们在后面会以新Argument中最难的题目之一——Argument 2为例,给出我们的范文,借此跟大家探讨一下这类instruction的理解和处理方法。
在说完了这样一个简单的例子之后,让我们来看Argument 2,希望借助它来帮助大家理解这类Argument的写作方法:
The following appeared as part of a letter to the editor of a scientific journal.
"A recent study of eighteen rhesus monkeys provides clues as to the effects of birth order on an individual's levels of stimulation. The study showed that in stimulating situations (such as an encounter with an unfamiliar monkey), firstborn infant monkeys produce up to twice as much of the hormone cortisol, which primes the body for increased activity levels, as do their younger siblings. Firstborn humans also produce relatively high levels of cortisol in stimulating situations (such as the return of a parent after an absence). The study also found that during pregnancy, first-time mother monkeys had higher levels of cortisol than did those who had had several offspring."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
(539 words)
In this letter to the editor of a scientific journal, the author quotes a recent study of eighteen rhesus monkeys, in which firstborn infant monkeys are found to produce up to twice as much of the hormone cortisol as do their younger siblings in stimulating situations. In addition, he mentions the discovery of some previous studies showing that firstborn humans also produce relatively high levels of cortisol in stimulating environments. Since cortisol is known to prime the body for increased activity levels, the author therefore suggests that the differences in the levels of stimulation exhibited in those studies can be explained by the differences in birth order. In other words, birth order may have some profound effects on an individual’s levels of stimulation. Admittedly, such an explanation is logically acceptable (if we assume that all the studies are valid), but there are at least two alternative explanations that could also account for the discoveries in the studies and rival the one endorsed by the author. The first competing explanation, which I would like to call the “inheritance hypothesis”, is that the level of stimulation of an infant monkey or a human baby is determined by and positively correlated with the cortisol concentration of its or his biological mother during pregnancy. Specifically, the maternal cortisol level during pregnancy may have predetermined the maximum concentration of cortisol an infant could possibly produce in his entire life. This hypothesis arises intuitively from the fact that a fetus in the womb acquires nutrients and other substances, including some hormones, directly from his mother. As the author reveals in the same letter, the study of rhesus monkeys also found that first-time mother monkeys had a higher level of cortisol during pregnancy than did those who had already had several offspring, which could serve as a compelling piece of evidence to support this hypothesis. Firstborn infants, therefore, might be able to show a higher level of stimulation merely because of the higher level of cortisol of their mothers during pregnancy, while the correlation between the birth order and the levels of stimulation is completely coincidental in this scenario. Equally possible is the explanation based on the age of infants, or the “age hypothesis”, which attributes the higher levels of cortisol to the older age of firstborn monkey or infants when the studies were conducted. Theoretically speaking, as an infant grows, his physical body will gradually develop and eventually mature. Such a developmental process can be reflected by the level of stimulation or the concentration of cortisol. To specify, the older an infant is, the higher amount of cortisol he may be able to produce, which means that he can exhibit a higher level of stimulation. In this way, the observed higher level of cortisol of firstborn infants can be properly explained by age, since they are apparently older than their siblings in the experiments.
To summarize, besides the possible explanation offered by the author, there exist at least two competing hypotheses that could account for the facts presented in his letter. Given the limited amount of information provided by the author, however, we are not able to judge which one is better or more credible. It would require more evidence to identify the best explanation(s).
在具体写作当中,我们建议分成若干个段落,第一段把facts和作者的解释复述一遍;之后的第二、第三再来提出我们的alternative explanation。最后一段和往常一样需要总结,但是这里请注意,我们并没有说哪种观点更好,而是说根据目前的证据我们无法判断孰优孰劣;要确定谁正确,还需要更多的信息(至于是什么我们也不用细究)。
我们再继续介绍一下我们推荐的段内逻辑布局(或者说逻辑模板),首先第一句话提出alternative explanation是什么,然后接下来的几句话具体描述一些可能的机理和细节(如第二段specifically后面的内容);随后讨论这个explanation为是如何来解释题目当中描述的现象的,中间还可以穿插一些这个explanation是如何想到的(arise intuitively from ...)以及结合题目当中已知信息的分析。