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本帖最后由 tyarel 于 2010-6-4 19:31 编辑
TOPIC: ARGUMENT31 - The following appeared in the editorial section of a newsmagazine.
"Some states are creating new laws that restrict the use of handheld cell phones by drivers of automobiles. Such legislation, however, is sheer folly. Although some people with cell phones undoubtedly cause problems on the road, including serious accidents, the majority do not. Besides, problems are also caused by drivers who are distracted by any number of other activities, from listening to the radio to disciplining children. Since there is no need to pass legislation restricting these and other such activities, it follows that there is no need to restrict people's freedom to use a device that they find convenient-or helpful in emergencies."
WORDS: 416 TIME: 01:18:22 DATE: 2010/5/30 15:54:13
In the argument, the author concludes that the legislation of the new law is unnecessary and folly through the statement that quite few accident happen since drivers use phones and he analogy of mobile phone and other distraction. The conclusion, however, is not as plausible as it seems since the evidences and reasons are not so convincing and incontrovertible.
Foremost, the argument is relying on that the majority people don`t cause problems with cell phone. Yet, what is the exact meaning of ‘majority’? Maybe, the proportion of accidents mentioned is 5 percent or even lower. But, with the huge population, it still indicates a great amount of people suffering from the problem, which actually should be paid more attention on. So without the accurate number or the percentage, it is hard to convince me that the number of the accidents which are caused by the drivers using mobile phones can be neglected.
Even assuming that the number or the percentage is low enough, the conclusion is not so reasonable in some way. The not-high-percentage doesn`t imply that there are no accidents. And the argument also can`t deny that some people do cause really serious accidents, which is undoubted and maybe these kind of accidents are exceedingly dangerous or even fatal than the others. So, that the argument tried to ignore the possibility of problems and the necessity of the law is not that persuasive.
Besides those above, the analogy offered here is not conclusive, either. Admittedly, listening to the music or disciplining children will also interfere the drivers, but it is doubtful that both of these will lead to serious car accidents just as using cell phones does. Perhaps these two distractions result in far fewer problems, like only 1 or 2 in the whole state in one year while more than 5 or 6 hundreds accidents resulting from phones in one month in the same state. And even the analogy is correct, the writer is unable to provide the reasons why there is no need to restrict people listening to music when they drive, let alone to draw the conclusion that forbidding handed-phone-use is insignificant and stupid.
In sum, with the uncertain incidence, inappropriate analogy and questionable inference, the argument is not potent enough to show the meaninglessness of enacting the law. And more precise numbers showing the low possibility of the accidents and more proper evidence to demonstrate that using phones is not so dangerous will be useful and instrumental to strengthen the argument.
(2010/5/30 15:46:40)
重新编辑了一下,是自己隔了2天再次修改好的文章 |
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