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15. The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.
"Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
In this argument the author concludes that either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine. To support this assertion the author first points out that only about 2 percent of customers have complained the change in which butter was replaced by margarine, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. And then he/she also claims that many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. However, I find this argument suspicious on several grounds.
One, the author unfairly assumes that cakes made of margarine are the main or sole products in Happy Pancake House. However, it is very likely that Happy Pancake House has a wide variety of products, such as ice cream, cakes of non-butter, candies, etc. And margarine cakes only featured the restaurants and make up only a small fraction. So it is possible that most of the remaining 98 percent of customers bought other kinds of their products rather than cakes made of margarine, thus, the people that have complained about the change would account for a large proportion among those customers who bought margarine cakes, which indicating that most people are unhappy with this change. Therefore, without a detailed and accurate information about the categories of products of Happy Pancake House and their each proportion, the author cannot convince me that most customers are happy with the change.
Two, even if cakes made of butter are the main products, the author provides no clear evidence to justify the assumption that the remaining 98 percent of customers are happy with the change. Perhaps the time that this measure has been introduced is so short that people do not get a time to have a complaint. Maybe with the passage of time, an increasingly more people would have a complaint. And it is also entirely possible that though most of the remaining customers are not satisfied with the change, they did not have complained since having a complaint is troublesome. In all likelihood, customers would not visit again. Therefore, without ruling out these possibilities, the conclusion is unpersuasive.
And finally, the assumption that a number of customers who ask for butter and do not complain are not unhappy when they are given margarine instead is also irrational. Likewise, these customers do not want to have a complaint just as it is troublesome or they do not have enough time to complain due to their busy work, but not indicate that they are satisfied with the change, this scenario is quite possible. So without accounting for the details of people's real attitudes toward the measure of giving margarine instead, the conclusion is still ill-conceived.
Summed up, the recommendation is not on sound reasoning and therefore unconvincing as it stand. To bolster it the author must provide clear and persuasive evidence that cakes made of margarine are the main products, in addition must prove that the customers without complaints are not unhappy with the change.
自己根本感觉不出来每篇argument写的怎么样，总觉得都是一个套路出来的~望对文章逻辑什么的提提意见~~ |
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发表于 2012-3-7 20:38:03
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