Argument137 (United小组第6次作业） BY: M80

M80UID: 2429095

Argu137
137.The following appeared in an editorial in the Mason City newspaper.
"At present, Mason City residents seldom use the nearby Mason River for any kind of recreational activity, even though surveys of the region's residents consistently rank water sports (swimming, fishing, and boating) as a favorite form of recreation. Since there have been complaints about the quality of the water in the river, residents must be avoiding the river because they think that it is not clean enough. But that situation is about to change: the agency responsible for rivers in our region has announced plans to clean up Mason River. Therefore, recreational use of the river is likely to increase, so the Mason City council will need to increase its budget for improvements to the publicly owned lands along the Mason River."
当前，Mason市很少利用附近的Mason河来进行娱乐活动，尽管对该地区居民的几次调查一直指出他们把水上运动（游泳、垂钓和划船）作为他们最喜欢的娱乐形式。由于曾经存在对于这条河水质的投诉，居民一定是因为他们认为河水不够干净才不在这里活动。但这种情况就会改变了：我们地区负责河流管理的部门公布了澄清Mason河的计划。因此，河流的娱乐用途很可能将会增加，因而Mason市的市委有必要增加用于改善Mason河沿岸公共土地的预算。


In this editorial, the author concluded that the Manson City council needed to increase the budget to improve the publicly owned lands along the Mason River. This conclusion is based on two premises: one is that the reason why Mason City residents do not use the Mason River for recreational activities is that they are not satisfied with the water of the river; the other is that the agency responsible for the river could actually clean the river, however, both the two mentioned above are not forceful enough to support the conclusion.

To clarify that it is due to the water of the river is not clean that the residents nearby do not enjoy themselves on the river, the author cited several surveys, which indicated that the residents’ favorite form of recreation are water sports, such as swimming, boating, and fishing, yet, in favor of water sports does not equal to taking action to do water sports. For instance, some residents may like boating, but can not afford a boat, or they consider swimming is cool and beneficial to health, whereas they can not swim. In addition, the surveys conducted in the past could not indicate that currently, the residents still rank water sports as their favorite form of recreation. Meanwhile, more statements should also be provided to unravel if there is enough people participating the surveys and whether they are representative of all the residents. Otherwise, the surveys are not compelling to support the conclusion.

Even if the residents still consider water sports as their favorite and have the ability to take action, the author did not recognize other factors that were the reasons why the residents did not use the Mason River to do water sports. For example, the river is too shallow for any kinds of recreational activities, or there are too many plants in the river that it makes the river not appropriate to do water sports; it is also possible that because of certain reasons, there have been several serious accidents when the residents enjoying themselves on or nearby the river, therefore, the residents do not want to take the risk.

Even though if is true that because the river is not clean, then residents do not enjoy themselves on the Mason River, another assumption on which the conclusion is based may not come into existence, in that though the agency responsible for the Mason River announced to clean the river, it is possible that they are not able to take action effectively. The author failed to consider some factors. For example, the agency is lack of financial support, as a result of which, they could not implement their plan, or the pollution of the Mason River is too serious that it is rather difficult to clean it.

Even the plan of the agency could be put in practice effectively, it does not mean that the Mason City council need to increase the budget to improve the publicly owned lands along the river. It is entirely possible that the environment and the public facilities along the Mason River are already good enough, therefore, it would a waste of time and money to improve them. In addition, the environment may be natural at present, and the residents are in favor of nature, thus, they are not willing to influent the environment.

In sum, more evidences should be provided to justify that the reason that the residents do not use the river is that the water is not clean, and that the surveys are convincing enough. Furthermore, whether the agency would take effective action or not is questionable.