[逵逵写AWA-AA053]

53. The following appeared as part of an editorial in a weekly newsmagazine.

“Historically, most of this country’s engineers have come from our universities; recently, however, our university-age population has begun to shrink, and decreasing enrollments in our high schools clearly show that this drop in numbers will continue throughout the remainder of the decade. Consequently, our nation will soon be facing a shortage of trained engineers. If we are to remain economically competitive in the world marketplace, then, we must increase funding for education — and quickly.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Forecasting the possibility of shortage of trained engineers in the future, the author of this editorial calls for more educational funding for universities from which the majority of engineers come. To bolster this point of view, the author gives the continued reduction of university-age population and enrollments in high schools as proof. While this argument is somewhat convincing, a few concerns need to be addressed.

First, the author fails to establish a causal relationship between the decrease in university-age population and enrollments in high schools and the shortage of skilled engineers. We can image that even though fewer students enroll universities, a larger part of these students specialize in majors relevant to engineer. After their graduations, more engineers will be available and the shortage of engineers will not occur. Moreover, this fallacy exists in the argument of relationship between the number of trained engineers and the economic competitiveness as well. This country may have had an overwhelmingly high engineer level compared with other countries. Improvement in other fields of national capabilities may advantage economic competitiveness.

Second, the evidence the author provides is not adequate to draw that more funding will make sense to increase the number of engineering graduates. The author does not exclude other factors. But for example, the shortage of academic faculty also likely causes the presented condition.

In conclusion, without explicit statement about items discussed above, the author’s argument is not sound and convincing. To strength author’s request for more educational funding, the author must provide evidence that we face a critical shortage of engineers, and that increased funding will have direct bearing on correcting this shortage. As it stands, both these claims rest on unwarranted assumptions.

类似题：

74. The following appeared as part of an editorial in a campus newspaper.

“With an increasing demand for highly skilled workers, this nation will soon face a serious labor shortage. New positions in technical and professional occupations are increasing rapidly, while at the same time the total labor force is growing slowly. Moreover, the government is proposing to cut funds for aid to education in the near future.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

建议把第一个逻辑错误分成两个写并且把第二个再展开下。

总体很不错哦！加油！

谢谢好孩子judydongxueni的批改；帖子题目已经改正。

呵呵常来AWA玩哦