Argument55 [AWB小组]第十八次作业

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55"In an attempt to improve highway safety, PruntyCounty recently lowered its speed limit from  miles per hour to 45 on all major county roads. But the 55 mph limit should be restored, because this safety effort has failed. Most drivers are exceeding the new speed limit and the accident rate throughout PruntyCounty has decreased only slightly. If we want to improve the safety of our roads, we should instead undertake the same kind of road improvement project that ButlerCounty completed five years ago: increasing lane widths and resurfacing rough roads. Today, major Butler County roads still have a 55 mph speed limit, yet there were 25 percent fewer reported accidents in Butler County this past year than there were five years ago."

1.      failed

2.  55mph

3.  undertake the same kind project

      

The argument attempts to make us believe that the decrease of the speed limit in Prunty County

is an ineffective measure. Further more, the author suggests us to undertake the same kind of

road improvement project that Butler County completed five years ago. The reasons and facts,

which are provided by the argument and seems reasonable, are questionable in at least two

aspects.

First of all, the conclusion that the safety effort of decreasing the speed limit has failed is not convincing.As the argument tells us that most drivers are exceeding the new speed limit, maybe the policy itself is right, but for the problem of execution, it hasn’t been carried out as it should be,therefore we cannot find its obvious effectiveness. Then we should keep the speed limit and educate the drivers to follow it, otherwise we would punish them. The argument tells us that the accident rate throughout PruntyCounty has decreased only slightly. It cannot be considered a sufficient proof to indicate that the new limitation should be got rid of. It is most likely that this is the season when there are more accidents than the rest of time.If compared to the average number of accidents all over the year, the accident rate in the month when there is always the largest number of accidents in the whole year still decreases, we cannot say the safety effort has failed.Another questionable place is that why the 55 mph limit should be restored, perhaps if we continue minusing it to 40 mph or 35 mph, the accident rate will be far less.

Secondly,the arguemnt advices us to increase lane widths and resurface rough roads without reliable reasoning. The author ignores to describe the present situation of the lane wideths and the surface of the roads in Prunty County.If the roads are broad and flat enough,or even much broader than Butler County’s, it is not necessary to waste time and money on the roads.There were 25 percent fewer reported accidents in Butler County this past year than there were five years ago. What was the situation four years ago, three years ago or two years ago? The argument fails to rule out the posibility that in the past five years only the accident rate of last year descreased compared to five years ago. Then we cannot say that the road improvement project in Butler County really plays an important part in Butler County.

In sum, if the argument want to prove that the speed limit is a wrong decision, it has to list adequate reasons. If the author really agrees with following the safety project in Butler County, he or she should not only show us a comprehensive comparison between the roads in Butler County and those in Prunty County, but also provide the exact accdient rate in the past five years,not only last year’s.

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