【Big Fish】3月4日Argument14-By Jenius

jenius4869UID: 2659821

14.The following appeared in a memo from the owner of Green Thumb Gardening Center, a small business serving a suburban town.

"There is evidence that consumers are becoming more and more interested in growing their own vegetables. A national survey conducted last month indicated that many consumers were dissatisfied with the quality of fresh vegetables available in supermarkets. And locally, the gardening magazine Great Gardens has sold out at the Village News stand three months in a row. Thus, we at Green Thumb Gardening Center can increase our profits by greatly expanding the variety of vegetable seeds we stock for gardeners this coming spring."


The suggestion proposed by the owner of Green Thumb Gardening Center that they can increase their profits by expanding the variety of vegetable seeds they stock seems well-reasoned. However, the evidence cited by him/her is not sufficient to bolster the recommendation. I will discuss each of the fallacies in turn.

To begin with, one problem with the author's reasoning is the assumption that the situation of the suburban town could coincide with the result achieved by the national survey. But the author fails to provide any confirm proof to substantiate this assumption. In all likelihood the residents live in suburban town feel quite satisfied with the vegetables in supermarkets because they think they are fresh and convenient. Or perhaps the national survey itself is not convincing and may not reflect the average level of the whole generation. Therefore, just depend on a national survey is not an appropriate way to draw any conclusion about the attitudes of the local people towards vegetables in supermarkets.

Moreover, another fact described by author that a certain gardening magazine has sold out at one stand three months successively is also not trustworthy. This may have been a time, such as one particular method for gardening has been very popular during that time and has been introduced in that magazine which subsequently attracts many readers. It is also possible that the supply of that magazine at other newsstands is in a shortage since this kind of magazines is not popular considered by the owners of most of the newsstands. Also in reference to the preference of the local people, without knowing the real motivation which spur the residents to buy the magazine, such as they may have a great passion in clipping flowers, decorating the trees in their garden, so we could not ensure they bought the magazines just because they want to grow vegetables by themselves.

Even if the residents in this suburban town were dissatisfied with the vegetables in supermarket. It does not necessarily mean they would like to grow their own vegetables or what is more, to bring large profits to Green Thumb Gardening Center, for there may have other alternative options for them, such as buying vegetables from the farmers who sale vegetables there, or from the grocery stores. Even if the residents would like to grow their own vegetables, the author still make a false causal relation between the gradually interests in growing vegetables of local people and a raise in the firm's profits. As the author claims, is seems that if they expand the variety of vegetables seeds and sell them to the residents, they would certainly gain much profits. However, he ignores other possible situations that may happen, for example, the local might buy the seeds from other bigger companies, or from the experienced farmers rather than from which is only a small business and may have no related experience.

Overall, the argument, while it seems logical at first, has several flaws as I discussed above. To better evaluate it, the author should make a survey aimed at the local people whose opinions towards the supermarket's vegetables are very valuable to his project, and he/she should also try to find out the actual reason behinds the increasing sell of this magazine. What is more, if they really want to make a margin, it is also important to do a deeply and elaborate investigation of the local economic condition of vegetables.

wowoyuweiweiUID: 2754055

The suggestion proposed by the owner of Green Thumb Gardening Center that they can increase their profits by expanding the variety of vegetable seeds they stock seems well-reasoned. However, the evidence cited by him/her is not sufficient to bolster the recommendation. I will discuss each of the fallacies in turn.

To begin with, one problem with the author's reasoning is the assumption that the situation of the suburban town could coincide with the result achieved（demonstrated如何？） by the national survey. But the author fails to provide any confirm proof to substantiate this assumption. In all likelihood the residents live in suburban town feel quite satisfied with the vegetables in supermarkets because they think they are fresh and convenient. Or perhaps the national survey itself is not convincing and may not reflect the average level of the whole generation（应不应该加s，否则好像是只有一代人在买菜）. Therefore, just depend on a national survey is not an appropriate way to draw any conclusion about the attitudes of the local people towards vegetables in supermarkets.

Moreover, another fact described（这个与上段But the author fails时态不一致） by author that a certain gardening magazine has（这部分是不是应该用过去式？） sold out at one stand three months successively is also not trustworthy. This may have been a time, such as one particular method for gardening has been very popular during that time and has been introduced in that magazine which subsequently attracts many readers. It is also possible that the supply of that magazine at other newsstands is in a shortage since this kind of magazines is not popular considered by the owners of most of the newsstands. Also in reference to the preference of the local people, without knowing the real motivation which spur the residents to buy the magazine, such as they may have a great passion in clipping flowers, decorating the trees in their garden, so we could not ensure they bought the magazines just because they want to grow vegetables by themselves.

Even if the residents in this suburban town were dissatisfied with the vegetables in supermarket. It does not necessarily mean they would like to grow their own vegetables or what is more, to bring large profits to Green Thumb Gardening Center, for there may have other alternative options for them, such as buying vegetables from the farmers who sale vegetables there, or from the grocery stores. Even if the residents would like to grow their own vegetables, the author still make a false causal relation between the gradually interests in growing vegetables of local people and a raise in the firm's profits. As the author claims, is seems that if they expand the variety of vegetables seeds and sell them to the residents, they would certainly gain much profits. However, he ignores other possible situations that may happen, for example, the local might buy the seeds from other bigger companies or from the experienced farmers rather than from which is only a small business and may have no related experience.（我在文章里提到增加种子的品种不一定会获利，因为可能适合种植的品种十分有限。欢迎讨论）

Overall, the argument, while it seems logical at first, has several flaws as I discussed above. To better evaluate it, the author should make a survey aimed at the local people whose opinions towards the supermarket's vegetables are very valuable to his project, and he/she should also try to find out the actual reason behinds the increasing sell of this magazine. What is more, if they really want to make a margin, it is also important to do a deeply and elaborate investigation of the local economic condition of vegetables.

很抱歉，最近事情很多，没能及时拍文。以后尽量按时完成任务。
我觉得文章写得很好，在语言和逻辑方面都很好。
尤其是语言，很值得我好好学习。
每一段的论述也极其清晰。
不过，一点小建议，就是时态有的时候好像不是很统一，值得商榷。