2015年AW暑期同主题练习-Narcissus-art

Narcissus-artUID: 3564225

166) The following memo appeared in the newsletter of the West Meria Public Health Council.
An innovative treatment has come to our attention that promises to significantly reduce absenteeism in our schools and workplaces. A study reports that in nearby East Meria, where fish consumption is very high, people visit the doctor only once or twice per year for the treatment of colds. \\ This shows that eating a substantial amount of fish can clearly prevent colds. \\ Furthermore, since colds are the reason most frequently given for absences from school and work, attendance levels will improve. \\ Therefore, we recommend the daily use of a nutritional supplement derived from fish oil as a good way to prevent colds and lower absenteeism.

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

In this letter, it is recommended that people should take a nutritional supplement derived from fish oil every day to precent colds and reduce absenteeism. A number of questions about why people in East Meria visit doctor infrequently for the treatment of colds, whether colds are the real reason for absences from school and work, and the effects of taking fish oil on a daily basis relative to eating fish need to be answered in order to evaluate.

The first question we need to investigate is why people in East Meria visit doctor infrequently for the treatment of colds. It is assumed in the argument that eating a large amount of fish is the main reason. For one thing, we need more information about people’s attitude about whether or not it is worth going to visit doctors because of colds. Maybe they got colds more than twice per year, but they did not go to hospitals every time. Perhaps they think it is expensive and not necessary to visit doctors for small diseases like colds and choose to take some measures at home to cure it gradually. Therefore, visiting doctor infrequently for the treatment of colds does not mean people in East Meria seldom get cold. In addition, even if people in East Meria rarely get cold, we need more evidence about whether or not it is related to eating lots of fish. Maybe they have a healthier lifestyle due to the governments’ active publicity about the importance of health, such as doing exercise regularly and eating nutritional diets. If that was the case, we can not get the conclusion that eating a lot of fish can clearly prevent colds.

It is also assumed that colds are the real reason for absences from school and work. But we need to ask several questions to check this. First, whether schools or companies need students or employees to show medical certificates for absences. If there is no need to show this kind of certificates when people want to have a sick-leave, maybe they just use colds instead of their real diseases as a reason to ask for absences. Second, what are the students’ attitudes towards their learning? If they do not like learning and do not want to go to school, colds may just serve as a excuse for their absences. Similarly, what are the motivational levels of workers? Maybe they just do not like the job out of various reasons, such as low salaries, awful working conditions and arbitrary leaders, which lead to a low level of attendance. If these are the cases, the assumption does not hold true.

Even if eating fishing can prevent colds that are the reason of people’s absences from school and work, the final issue we need to address is whether taking a nutritional supplement derived from fish oil on a daily basis has the same effects of eating fish. If the fish oil does not have the direct effects on preventing cold, it would not achieve the desired outcome. Also, even if fish oil is helpful to prevent colds, we need to know whether there is some potential harm of overdosage of it. After all, the proposed nutritional supplement derived from fish oil is different from fresh fish which could be a healthy substitute of pork and beef.

In conclusion, since we do not know the real reasons why people in East Meria visit doctor infrequently for the treatment of colds, it is not fair to assume that eating lots of fish can clearly prevent colds. More efforts should be made to investigate the real reason for absences and the effects of taking fish oil on a daily basis to decide whether the daily use of a supplement derived from fish oil is a feasible and desirable option to prevent colds and lower absenteeism.