[经验思考] GRE作文6分教学博客 [复制链接]

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发表于 2014-12-28 22:01:21 |只看该作者

Argument 132 mandatory driving course to address problems of accidents 示范

The following appeared in a letter to the school board in the town of Centerville.
"All students should be required to take the driver's education course at Centerville High School. In the past two years, several accidents in and around Centerville have involved teenage drivers. Since a number of parents in Centerville have complained that they are too busy to teach their teenagers to drive, some other instruction is necessary to ensure that these teenagers are safe drivers. Although there are two driving schools in Centerville, parents on a tight budget cannot afford to pay for driving instruction. Therefore an effective and mandatory program sponsored by the high school is the only solution to this serious problem."
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.

The author of the letter argues that the only way to solve the problem of accidents involving teenage drivers is to introduce a compulsory program funded by Centervill High School.  We need to gather more information to examine a number of assumptions about the accidents, the parents, the driving schools and the high school in order to decide whether the argument is reasonable.

It is assumed that the problem of accidents involving teenage drivers is serious enough to justify the resources required to run the proposed program. The author mentioned that there were several accidents involving teenage drivers. But we do not know how serious the accidents were. Were there people killed or severely injured? Were automobiles involved completely destroyed? If the accidents were not serious enough, maybe it is not worthwhile to run an education program for all teenage drivers. In addition, we need to know the actual causes of the accidents in order to decide whether teenage drivers should be blamed.  Maybe the accidents were due to the mistakes made by adult drivers in the accidents.  Or they were due to mechanical failure.  In such scenarios, the education programs would not be helpful.

Another assumption is that most parents were too busy to teach their children how to drive safely. According to the letter, some parents complained that they did not have the time. But we do not know how widespread the problem is among all the parents in Centerville. We need more information about how much time, in average, parents of teenage drivers in Centerville can afford to teach their children in order to assess the claim that parents could not help solve the problem.

With regard to the driving schools, it is assumed that parents could not afford the instructions due to their tight budgets.  To examine this assumption, more information is required about the parents’ budget and how they perceive the needs to educate their children about driving safely. If the parents consider it essential to offer their children the instruction, maybe they will pay for the courses of the driving schools despite their tight budgets.

When the program is proposed, it is further assumed that Centerville school has the authority to require all students to take the course and the capabilities and funding to run an effective course.  Since driving may not be part of the school curriculum, it is not clear whether the school has the authority or power to make it compulsory for all students to take the course. In addition, we do not know if the school would have enough experience and human resources to run an effective program. Also, the Centerville school may not have enough funding to finance such a program.  Therefore, we need more information about all these issues to check the assumptions.

Finally, it is assumed that the proposed program is the only solution to the problem. There are alternative solutions that need to be explored. For example, maybe the school could outsource the teaching jobs to one of the two driving schools in Centerville as they are more experienced in running such programs and may do so at lower costs.  And if the problem is due to some specific behavior issues such as drink and drive or speeding, more rigorous law enforcement could be another solution.  Without thoroughly investigating other possible solutions, it is unwise to accept the proposed program as the only solution.

In conclusion, this mandatory program may be helpful for addressing the problem.  But we need to scrutinize the assumptions discussed above with more empirical data to evaluate the validity of the argument.

[经验思考] GRE作文6分教学博客 [复制链接]

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