[a习作temp] Building a new town hall in Rockingham [复制链接]

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发表于 2010-3-11 21:07:16 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

2. The following is taken from the editorial section of the local newspaper in Rockingham.
"In order to save a considerable amount of money, Rockingham's century-old town hall should be torn down
and replaced by the larger and more energy-efficient building that some citizens have proposed. The old town
hall is too small to comfortably accommodate the number of people who are employed by the town. In
addition, it is very costly to heat the old hall in winter and cool it in summer. The new, larger building would
be more energy efficient, costing less per square foot to heat and cool than the old hall. Furthermore, it would
be possible to rent out some of the space in the new building, thereby generating income for the town of
Rockingham."

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In this editorial, the author recommends building a new town hall to replace the old one, so as to save a ponderable amount of money. To support this recommendation, the author points out that the old town hall cannot accommodate all civil servants of the town, and that it is not energy efficient. The author also conceives that some space of the new town hall can be rented out to make money. In my opinion, this recommendation is problematic because of several flaws.

First of all, the author fails to provides the total cost of building a new town hall, as well as the expenses of maintaining the old building. Perhaps if Rockingham town decided to build a new town hall, it would bear heavy loans because of high expenses on hiring architects, buying materials and paying workers. Maybe the total cost of building a new town hall is much more than maintaining the old one in years ahead. Without providing detailed information about the new building and total budget, the author fails to convince me that building a new town hall can save money.

Second, the editorial asserts that a new building will be more energy-efficient than the old one. Admittedly, with the help of new materials and technologies, the new building can reduce energy consumption of one unit, such as a square meter or a cubic meter. But the author overlooks a crucial prerequisite that the new building will be much bigger than the old one, either measured in area or volume. For this matter, it is very reasonable to doubt the new town hall will consume more energy as total.

Finally, the author asserts Rockingham town can generate income, at least make ends meet by renting out some rooms. But there is no evidence in this editorial to substantiate this assertion. To provide rooms for renting, the decision-makers must prepare sufficient budget to build a new building which is big enough to accommodate so many people. Perhaps the cost demanded by additional space is so expensive that it is hard to take back in near future by renting. On the other hand, the author assumes these rooms will always be rented. On the contrary, perhaps these space will be hard to rent out because there are enough space of office building providing in Rockingham. Without eliminating these possibilities, the recommendation is not well supported.

In sum, this editorial fails in providing a persuasive recommendation. To better evaluate the conclusion, I need more detailed information about the new building, especially the total cost or budget of it. Furthermore, the author must provide more evidence and statistics to show the new building is more energy efficient. Last but not least, the author must justify that renting out some rooms of the new building is definitely beneficial by offsetting a considerable amount of expenses.