144. The citizens of Forsythe have adopted more healthful lifestyles. Their responses to a recent survey show that in their eating habits they conform more closely to government nutritional recommendations than they did ten years ago. Furthermore, there has been a fourfold increase in sales of food products containing kiran, a substance that a scientific study has shown reduces cholesterol. This trend is also evident in reduced sales of sulia, a food that few of the healthiest citizens regularly eat.
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.
It might seem logical, at first glance, to agree with that the author’s argument----citizens in Forsythe have adopted more healthful lifestyles. However, in order to fully evaluate the argument, we need to examine the reason of potential assumptions. The argument could end up be weaker than it seems, or it might actually quite valid. In order to make this determination, we need to know and then analyze it.
The first assumption that the author relies on is that the extent you conform to government nutritional recommendation determines your status of health. However, the phenomenon is just ostensible, and the nutritional recommendation may be just one of important factors to people’s health. For example, Forsythe’s residents become keen on sports, and the quality of the air has promoted during the period, which all are conducive to wholesome physics. What’s more, even if the recommendation is of greatest significance, the contemporary survey could not be solid evidence because of lack of information about its representativeness. If the response is scarce or limited in a small group, it’s hard to lend credence to the survey. Therefore, without ruling out one and other possibilities and conduct a credible survey, the argument cannot be approved.
Another assumption that we need to consider involve the food products. The author intimates that the increase of food product embodying Kiran is accompanied by the increase of citizen’s health. Nevertheless, if we were to learn that the good sales of these products is mainly because of their lustrous taste, or the advertising effect like some hot stars being the representative of the customer, it’s absurd to link this increase to the better health. Furthermore, the scientific study is also dubious because no relevant information revealing its objectivity. If the research is funded by the food company, its result apparently is weakened. Thus, only eliminate these suspects can the author convince us that good sale of this kind of product means promotion of health.
Lastly, it’s “interesting” to find that the author point out that the reduce sales of sulia means the local residents adopts healthful lifestyle because most of healthy citizens seldom eat it. But this inference is rift with holes. Firstly, how does the author mean ”most”? Perhaps the percent it accounts for is not large. Secondly, even if large percent of healthy residents eat less, it is entirely possible that the taste of this food is not welcomed by majority of people, including both the healthy and the not. Therefore, without strong evidence to validate the assumption, the conclusion is untenable.
In sum, to convince that the residents has , the author has to do nothing but providing more explanations and strengthen the assumptions by answering some questions or scrutinize the argument carefully. Otherwise, the recommendation made in this magazine is weak and can be easily toppled.
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发表于 2013-2-16 10:51:07
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