AA007,请大家扔砖头：-）judy修改标题见谅

7    441words

The following appeared in the health section of a magazine on trends and lifestyles.

“People who use the artificial sweetener aspartame are better off consuming sugar, since aspartame can actually contribute to weight gain rather than weight loss. For example, high levels of aspartame have been shown to trigger a craving for food by depleting the brain of a chemical that registers satiety, or the sense of being full. Furthermore, studies suggest that sugars, if consumed after at least 45 minutes of continuous exercise, actually enhance the body’s ability to burn fat. Consequently, those who drink aspartame-sweetened juices after exercise will also lose this calorie-burning benefit. Thus it appears that people consuming aspartame rather than sugar are unlikely to achieve their dietary goals.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

In this argument, the author advocates the conclusion that it is better for people who want to lose weight to consume sugar rather than artificial sweetener. To support this conclusion, the author asserts that aspartame can indirectly contribute to weight gain by triggering a craving for food, in addition that sugar can enhance the body’s ability to burn fat. A careful reflection reveals that the reasoning has three critical fallacies.    70

In the first place, the most egregious reasoning in this argument is the author’s use of evidence relating to a particular situation as the basis of the general situations. Even if it is true that high levels of aspartame will trigger a craving for food by depleting the brain of a chemical, which registers satiety, it can not directly lead to the conclusion that the aspartame will inevitably has such effect. For example, the author does not show us any details about the “high levels” here. Thus, the question is, how is the “high” defined? Is it as high as the amount during normal consumption? If it is not that high, it may not be true that the consumption will bring the result of food craving.         126

On the second thought, the study provided to support the main claim that sugar can enhance the body’s ability to burn fat. However, the result of the study is ambiguous and oversimplified, and thus may distort the final claim. The author focused only on the consumption of sugar after exercise to burn fat. While a more detailed analysis may reveal it is the exercise itself causes this result. For example, it may be possible that whatever a person eats after 45 minutes of continuous exercise, his/her ability to burn fat is enhanced. Thus, the author can not say that only the sugar can enhance such ability.   106

Last but not the least. Even if sugar indeed has the ability to burn fat, this fact is nor sufficient to give birth to the conclusion that aspartame-sweetened juices does not have such benefit. In this argument, the author offers no information to deny that the aspartame also has the ability. However, a further study may show that the aspartame can enhance the body’s ability to burn fat as well as or even better than the sugar.        77

As it stands, the conclusion is unwarranted and misleading because of these fallacies. To make it more logically satisfactory, the author should provides more information about how is the “high level” defined and is sugar the only factor that enhances the body’s ability of burning fat. Only then can we ultimately accept the conclusion the author made.     57

写的很好哦，是30分钟写出来的吗？用了很多高级词汇啊！赞一个！

注意一下小的语法和拼写没有大问题哦。

fishJJ还是math的斑斑还在整理机经，向她致敬！hiahia我好幸福哦，9月份可以看姐姐整理的机经hiahia！

谢谢judyJJ:-) 是30分钟写的，但写完后改了一下，不过这些错误还是没能发现，特别是居然没有THE,谢谢JJ啦，哈哈