Argument公开课试讲

tesolchinaUID: 2191404

元月开始会通过寄托官方群推出一些GRE作文的公开课，先在版友开的QQ群（群号：467668178）里试一下。有兴趣参加的同学请加群，注明『攀G文』。同时，请自选一道argument真题（可考虑写第1、25、95和163），限时30分钟内完成一篇习作发到这里来。这篇文章我不会点评，但会提供指引让大家在上完课后自己点评。

请报名的同学回复本帖贴上自己的argument习作，包括完整的题号、题目以及耗时。

实时更新的教案和笔记

tesolchinaUID: 2191404

占一层楼帖教案

洋葱大叔UID: 3429088

顶 支持

洋葱大叔UID: 3429088

14，The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine. 耗时大概45分钟
"A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep the executives need and the success of their firms. Of the advertising firms studied, those whose executives reported needing no more than 6 hours of sleep per night had higher profit margins and faster growth. These results suggest that if a business wants to prosper, it should hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night."
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.
In this article, the author stated that only people who have less than 6 hours sleep time could make firms success. To support this conclusion, a study rating average sleep time of Mentian advertising executives are presented. Although short sleep time might have some correlation with success, information in this article can not coincidently lead to such conclusion, because there are several unsubstantiated assumptions in this article. When they proved unwarranted, the author’s conclusion will be challenged.

At first, the author assumed that 300 Mentian advertising executives could represent all other kind of other employee and Mentian could represent all other company. However, this assumption has fault. For example, high building workers should have full sleep time to make sure they have alarm head, preventing from risk such as fallen abject. Mentian advertising executives could not stand for these workers.

Secondly, the author supposed short sleep time directly caused success. As we know, diligent people surely have effective short time sleep. But what makes them success is their hard work. Short time sleep is just phenomenon, not direct cause. If we just have less sleep time and do nothing, we would be lazy, not success. In addition, lacking sleep even risk high building workers’ life.

Thirdly, the study’s reliability is supposed undoubted. Nevertheless, the study was conducted by Mentian. Their executives may cater to the boss and lie about their sleep time. If this happened, the study is unreliable, and the author’s statement also is unreliable.

In conclusion, the author’s assumptions need more information to be warrant.

吃大白菜的小白兔UID: 3637215

ARGUMENT1   耗时大概37分钟
1.Woven baskets characterized by a particular distinctive pattern have previously been found only in the immediate vicinity of the prehistoric village of Palea and therefore were believed to have been made only by the Palean people. Recently, however, archaeologists discovered such a "Palean" basket in Lithos, an ancient village across the Brim River from Palea. The Brim River is very deep and broad, and so the ancient Paleans could have crossed it only by boat, and no Palean boats have been found. Thus it follows that the so-called Palean baskets were not uniquely Palean.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.


In this argument, the author advocates that the so-called Palean baskets are not uniquely belong to Palean. In order to substantiate this conclude, he/she point out that archaeologists also find basket in  a Lithos village across the Brim River from Palean, however the river is deep and broad, Palean people should across it only by boat but there is no boat having been found yet, so the baskets’ ownership may not unique belong to Palean. Although this argument might seems reasonable superficially, it is in fact ill-conceived. The reasons are stated as follow.

In the first place, the author refer to the Brim River is very deep and broad at now, and thus Palean people have many difficulties in acrossing it. While this is entirely possible, but it is very likely that in the ancient times when Palean baskets is spreading , the Brim River is not as deep and broad as it now. And we can easy to assumes that as the time goes by some geology features of the Brim River have changed, such as some storm runoff and land subsidence may change the Brim River’s width and depth. In these circumstance, the author’s reasoning is rife with holes and fails to convince us that geology feature changes and other possible scenarios are impossible.

Besides, building upon the implication that the Palean people could across the Brim River only by boat, the author think boat should be the only vehicle to convey the Palean baskets. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that it is a necessarily case, and the author does not provide any cogent evidence to testify this assumption. It is quite possible that the Palean baskets arrive the Lithos by another ways. For instance, trade by commodities (Palean baskets could arrive Lithos by goods exchange )or culture transfer( some people who can make the Palean baskets migrate to the Lithos and leave some Palean baskets there ). Without ruling out other alternative explanations, the author cannot bolster the credibility of this consequence.

Finally, even if the evidence turns out to support the foregoing conjecture, the author just simply implies that the baskets is not unique belong to the Palean result from no Palean boats having be found yet, and do not provide any crucial scientific evidence to affirm this assumption. It is reasonable to doubt that maybe the archaeologists having not found it now but we can find out it in the near future and maybe the boats have existed in the past years but it have missed in the historical changes. To arrive the cited conclusion, the author should explain why none of these alternative ones is available and before that ,this argument is not convinced.

To sum up, the author’s argument mentioned above is lack of valid evidences and sound reasoning. In order to draw a cogent conclusion, the author should do some deeper research, cites more convincingly evidence, and take every possible consideration into account.

木婴UID: 3589207

25. The following was written as a part of an application for a small-business loan by a group of developers in the city of Monroe. 耗时54分钟

"A jazz music club in Monroe would be a tremendously profitable enterprise. Currently, the nearest jazz club is 65 miles away; thus, the proposed new jazz club in Monroe, the C-Note, would have the local market all to itself. Plus, jazz is extremely popular in Monroe: over 100,000 people attended Monroe's annual jazz festival last summer; several well-known jazz musicians live in Monroe; and the highest-rated radio program in Monroe is 'Jazz Nightly,' which airs every weeknight at 7 P.M. Finally, a nationwide study indicates that the typical jazz fan spends close to $1,000 per year on jazz entertainment."

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

This application thinks that a jazz music club, called C-Note, will bring a great profitable in Monroe, because it lacks of competition, many people like jazz music in Monroe and typical jazz fans were generous to this entertainment. However, it ignores some specific evidences. It should provide more information about that C-Note will be not threatened by the nearest jazz club, jazz music is popular in Monroe and the nationwide study is the same as ‘Monroewide’ study.

Firstly, this application need provide more information about that C-Note will not have any competition with the nearest jazz club. It is probably that 65 miles highway which connected C-Note and its nearest jazz club. People get there conveniently. On the other hand, the nearest jazz club maybe the most famous club in the world. C-Note has no chance to challenge it position. People would rather spend time to the nearest club than go to C-Note. Therefore this application should provide the evidence that the nearest jazz club is not better than C-Note.

Secondly，the evidence is also not enough to prove jazz music is popular in Monroe. Although annual jazz festival attracted many people attended in Monroe’s last summer, we cannot learn many people attended this festival every year. It is probably that jazz festival of last summer is very special and a lot of performances were never seen before. The fresh shows attracted them rather than jazz festival itself. On the other hand, the application should provide the reasons of the jazz musicians living in Monroe. If not, we may think that jazz musicians were attracted by the unrelated jazz factors. For example, the sun is shining brightly and the people are very kind. At the same time，the application should tell us that there is a direct connection between people like “Jazz Nightly” and people would go jazz club. If not, we may think that people just like listening the jazz radio program, but they do not like jazz club. At last, the information is too small to judge that the jazz music is popular in Monroe.

Thirdly, the application should tell us the typic jazz fan is also generous to the jazz club in Monroe. Jazz entertainment has many forms like listening the radio, going to jazz festivel, buying CDs and so on. Typic jazz fans could spend much money on other forms rather than jazz club. On the other hand, nationwide study cannot represent Monroe wide study unless Monroe samples are similar to the nationwide samples. We need the information about the exact nationwide samples and Monroe samples, and then we could realise whether nationwide study has the persvation to represent the Monroe jazz fans.

At last, this application need provide the evidence above to prove the C-Note club will bring a great profit or not.

没有辣椒不能活的粑粑草UID: 3653121

argument 14  第二篇Argument 耗时40分钟，还没有找到感觉

The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine.

A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep the executives need and the success of their firms. Of the advertising firms studied, those whose executives reported needing no more than 6 hours of sleep per night had higher profit margins and faster growth. These results suggest that if a business wants to prosper, it should hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night.

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


     According to the magazine, if a business wants to be successful, they should hire people who sleep less than 6 hours per night based on a survey of 300 executives who conduct prosperous advertising companies. To assess this recommendation, several questions about the accuracy of the reported sleeping hours, the reasons of their success and how representative they are should be answered.

     To begin with, it is important for us to know whether the sleeping hours the executives claim are accurate. There stands a chance that they report fewer sleeping hours than they actually have, thus showing their attitude toward sleep and giving others an impression that they are working very hard. If they misrepresent how many hours they sleep per night, this recommendation is not reasonable.

     Second, we need to know why their companies have higher profits and grow faster. It is likely that they sleep less and do more work than other companies; however, this may not be the only reason. We don’t know whether their companies have better organization and more competitive and reliable employees, or they just get a huge investment at the time when they are surveyed. These factors can contribute more to their prosperity than the sleeping hours. Thus, the reasons why there are more successful need to be cleared.

     We also need to know how representative they are. These executives are from advertising industry, where staffs have to burn midnight oil a lot. However, when it comes to the manufacturing or service industry, this requirement is not necessary. What’s more, all the respondents are executives, they may have more work and responsibility than other employees; thus they sleep less per night. But it is not the case for other staffs; they are only required to finish their duty, instead of having less sleep. Besides, this recommendation fails to consider the body condition of each person; some of them may not get used to the fewer sleep. With this question unanswered, this recommendation cannot be applied.

     To sum up, whether all the companies should employ people who sleep less than six hours per night is reasonable and applicable, the questions raised above should be answered.

RickYang2004UID: 3412302

Argument 25

The following was written as a part of an application for a small-business loan by a group
of developers in the city of Monroe.
"A jazz music club in Monroe would be a tremendously profitable enterprise. Currently, the nearest jazz club is 65 miles away; thus, the proposed new jazz club in Monroe, the C-Note, would have the local market all to itself. Plus, jazz is extremely popular in Monroe: over 100,000 people attended Monroe's annual jazz festival last summer; several well-known jazz musicians live in Monroe; and the highest-rated radio program in Monroe is 'Jazz Nightly,' which airs every weeknight at 7 P.M. Finally, a nationwide study indicates that the typical jazz fan spends close to $1,000 per year on jazz entertainment."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

In this argument, the arguer advocates that people who establish a jazz club in Monroe will gain huge benefits from it. Although this argument might seem reasonable at first glance, it is in fact ill-conceived. The reasons are stated as follows.

In the first place, the arguer assumes that because of no jazz club in Monroe around 65 miles range, founding a jazz music club will bring great fortune. Although this is entirely possible, the arguer offers no evidence to substantiate this crucial assumption. It is very likely that not only counting on club, there are much alternative approach to enjoy jazz music and share with others. An appropriate example is not very far to seek. With the rapid development of the internet, people who love jazz can more and more rely on MSN, QQ, Facebook and so forth, to choose jazz music which they like to listen and present their commend and notions immediately in the internet. From this point, the arguer’s reasoning is definitely flawed unless the arguer can convince me that these and other possible scenarios are unlikely.

In the second place, the arguer assumes that jazz music is much popular in Monroe, because of ,last summer, a splendid jazz music festival holding in Monroe, some famous jazz musicians living in there and with the highest-rated radio program- Jazz Nightly –in the city. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that it is necessarily the case, and the argue dose not supply any evidence to confirm this assumption. It is quite possible that the city has a perfect infrastructure, like theatre, gymnasium, and the centre of entertainment, which can hold all kinds of festival and perform and provide various services. Furthermore, Monroe might have beautiful scenery and suitable environment which is fit for living. Without accounting for and ruling out these and other alternative explanations, the arguer cannot bolster the recommendation.

The last but not the least important, even if the evidence turns out to support the foregoing assumptions, the arguer just simply assumes that a national survey that the jazz fan expense almost $ 1000 every year substantiate the market which contain enormous opportunities and benefits. But this data can support neither any conclusive systematical evidence nor comprehensive proof to affirm its assumption. On the other word, this evidence cannot prove that the city has a stable income from the market of jazz music. To reach the cited conclusion, the arguer must explain either why none of these alternative is available or why none of them is able to sustain.

To sum up, the arguer’s argument mentioned above is not based on valid evidence or sound reasoning, neither of which is dispensable for a conclusive argument. In order to draw a better conclusion, the arguer should reason more convincingly, cite some evidence that is more persuasive, and take every possible consideration into account.