argument162 限时完成,求各位同学拍砖

xiaolinlhxUID: 2302833

NO 162
TOPIC: ARGUMENT162 - A recent study shows that people living on the continent of North America suffer 9 times more chronic fatigue and 31 times more chronic depression than do people living on the continent of Asia. Interestingly, Asians, on average, eat 20 grams of soy per day, whereas North Americans eat virtually none. It turns out that soy contains phytochemicals called isoflavones, which have been found to possess disease-preventing properties. Thus, North Americans should consider eating soy on a regular basis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression.
WORDS: 459         TIME: 0:30:00


The author recommends that North Americans should consider eating soy on a regular basis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression. At first glance, the argument appears to be somehow appealing. However, as discuss below, the author suffer from several critical flaws and therefore is unpersuasive.

To begin with, the author claims that North Americans suffer 9 times more chronic fatigue and 31 times more chronic depression than Asians. However, we do not know the exact number of the patients either on the continent of North America or the patients on the continent of Asia. The single statistic is in sufficient to draw any general conclusion that North Americans are easier to suffer from chronic fatigue and chronic depression. For example, may be the study just investigates some North Americans from big cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angels, Houston and so on. Common sense and experience tell us that these people may easy suffer from chronic fatigue and chronic depression because their stress is hard. To support the conclusion, the author should provide more information.

In addiction, even North Americans are easier to suffer form chronic fatigue and chronic depression, the assumption that eat 20 grams of soy per day can prevent fatigue and depression is open to doubt. The author fails to establish a causal relationship between soy and fatigue and depression. There are many other facts that lend to the result. For example, the average temperature of Asia is higher than the average temperature of North America, the different in climate may also cause the difference. Or perhaps North Americans prefer hamburger, coke, fried chicken, may be it can also leads to the result of the study.

Last but not the least, although soy can helps Asians to prevent from fatigue and depression, the conclusion that North Americans should consider eating soy on a regular basis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression lacks credibility. As we know, the body abetween Asians and North Americans is quite different. May be soy just effects Asians. On the other hand, if North Americans take soy frequently, it may do harm to the body. Without eliminating this possibility, the author can not rely on the study to conclude that eating soy on a regular basis is a way to prevent fatigue and depression.

In conclusion, the author fail to adequately support the recommendation that North Americans should consider eating soy on a regular basis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression. To strengthen the argument, the author should provide more information that North Americans are easier to suffer from chronic fatigue and chronic depression than Asians. To assess the conclusion, I would need more information that soy can really effects North Americans.

[ 本帖最后由 xiaolinlhx 于 2007-4-6 17:45 编辑 ]

xiaolinlhxUID: 2302833

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xiaolinlhxUID: 2302833

就快考试了，哪位给点评价，谢谢！

oneinthousandUID: 2383947

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