argu7...sigh

JCBrenda

41. The following appeared in a healthnewsletter.

"Aten-year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet whilebicycling indicates that ten years ago, approximately 35 percent of allbicyclists reported wearing helmets, whereas today that number is nearly 80percent. Another study, however, suggests that during the same ten-year period,the number of bicycle-related accidents has increased 200 percent. Theseresults demonstrate that bicyclists feel safer because they are wearinghelmets, and they take more risks as a result. Thus, to reduce the number ofserious injuries from bicycle accidents, the government should concentrate moreon educating people about bicycle safety and less on encouraging or requiringbicyclists to wear helmets."

Write aresponse in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of theargument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions andwhat the implications are for the argument if the assumptions proveunwarranted.


In this argument, the author recommendsthat the government is supposed to pay more attention on educating people aboutbicycle safety and less on encouraging bicyclists to wear helmets. To supporthis advice, the author points out that the growing number of people are wearingthe helmets, resulting in their carelessness about their safety and theincreasing number of bicycle-related accidents. However, there are some flawsin this argument's assumptions which make this argument unconvinced.

Firstly, the author assumes that these twostudies including their samples are reliable in two aspects. First, the authorignores that the sample can only represent part of people in this nation,asking only limited number of people. Second, the respondents may be notaccurate because the interviewers ask some vague problems which sway theinterviewees' thoughts.

Secondly, based on these studies, theauthor assumes that the number of bicyclists wearing helmets ten years ago aredefinitely more than that of today by comparing the proportions of bicyclistswho wear helmets at different times. However, the author doesn't provide theexact numbers of the bicyclists, which may shows a contradictory consequence. .Todemonstrate the seriousness of this problem, the author incites the fact thatthe number of bicycle related accidents has increased 200 percent. Yet moreevidences are needed to prove that these accidents are mainly resulted from themistakes made by bicyclists themselves, not the cars or buses. And even if theformer contention is real and it is due to the faults of bicyclists, no proofare offered to illustrate that comparing with circumstances in the previous twoor three years, the number of accidents is still growing. The contraryphenomenon means that the circumstances are better now and wearing the helmetscannot be the crucial point for people to get serious injuries in accidents.

Finally, the author assumes that educatingpeople about bicycle safety is effective and the rate of accidents will befewer. There is a possible that people are not willing to be educated and theywon't listen to these lessons very carefully. Even if people accept theireducation and put it into practice, the author neglects the influence ofwearing helmets on people to prevent from injuries which are not very serious.For example, people may accidentally crash into the branches of trees which maydo damage to their faces. With helmets, it will just make little attrition onthe helmets themselves.

In sum, the author cannot substantiate thisargument without more testimony proving its assumptions. The author hase toprovide the proof that these two studies are valid. We would also need to begiven more information about the accurate numbers of bicyclists wearing thehelmets and the causes and specific statistics of these accidents in theprevious years. To better assess this argument, we should know more about thefeasibility and the effectiveness of the education and whether the helmets areuseful in different extents of injuries.

普渡哥

理由给的不错。