Argument17 graduate06--Hamming组 冲刺第2篇Argument

graduate06UID: 2223299

TOPIC: ARGUMENT17 - The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Walnut Grove town newspaper.
"Walnut Grove's town council has advocated switching from EZ Disposal (which has had the contract for trash collection services in Walnut Grove for the past ten years) to ABC Waste, because EZ recently raised its monthly fee from $2,000 to $2,500 a month, whereas ABC's fee is still $2,000. But the town council is mistaken; we should continue using EZ. EZ collects trash twice a week, while ABC collects only once. Moreover, EZ-which, like ABC, currently has a fleet of 20 trucks-has ordered additional trucks. Finally, EZ provides exceptional service: 80 percent of respondents to last year's town survey agreed that they were 'satisfied' with EZ's performance."
WORDS: 412          TIME: 上午 12:30:00          DATE: 2007-1-26
Outline:
1 充分必要 虽然EZ每周多运一次，但是不一定需要。
2 差异概念 车一样多=\= 一样好，有同样的运载量
3  survey
The statement's conclusion that the town council is mistaken in choosing ABC rather than EZ for their trash collection services seems an apparent conclusion at first glance. However, scrutiny of the evidence and reasoning line of the argument reveals that the author provides no firm support to the conclusion. First, the author assumes collects trash twice is necessary. In addition, the statement fails to provide enough information about EZ's trucks. And the reliability of the survey is open to doubt.

To begin with, the threshold assumption of the argument is that the collecting trash twice a week is necessary. Yet, we are not informed the case is like this. It is equally possible that the collecting trash once a week is enough. Or perhaps, although EZ collect trash twice a week, the volume of trash that they collect each week is much less than ABC does. If so, any reasoning on the basis of it is untenable.

Another problem of the argument is the author has not provided enough information about the EZ' truck. Although the number of EZ' trucks is as same as ABC's, perhaps the quality and type of the EZ' trucks are different from ABC's trucks. It is quite possible that EZ' trucks are all old and have a large number of problems, but ABC's trucks are all new. Or perhaps, the volume of trucks of EZ is much smaller than ABC's trucks'. Without examining and ruling out these cases the author cannot convince me that the conclusion of the argument is persuasive.

Finally, the credibility of the survey is open to question. First, the author has not provided that how many residents involved in the survey. If the number is very small, the result is untenable. Even if the number is large enough, perhaps the residents who involved in the survey were lived in a same block or area. If so, perhaps ABC's services in that area is better than other areas. So, the conclusion of the survey is unreliable as it stands.

At last, the argument, which seems logical as first, has several flaws discussed as above. To strengthen it, the author must provide the actual need that how often to collect trash in the Grove's town. To better evaluate the argument we also need to know the details of the EZ's trucks. We also need to know more information about the survey such as how many people involved in the survey and where they live in.
第二次直接打了，这次多打了10个字，哈，看来还是要多多努力啊！