argument137 [jet小组]第11次作业

michaelxuywUID: 2330197

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."

The author firstly contributes the seldom use of the Mason River by its nearby residents to the low quality of water, then positively expects a water quality improvement in the near future due a recent plan announced by the local agency, at last he suggests the Mason City council will need to increase its budget for the improvements to the publicly owned lands along the Mason River. However, the argument is far from cogent because of the fallacies which lie in the author's reasoning.

Firstly, the author makes an unsubstantiated causal relation between the low water quality and the seldom use of Mason River for any kind of recreational activity, for the author fails to provide any evidence to show these people who complains about the quality of water would like to take part in any of these water sports, hence it is entirely possible that those people complain just for the protection of environment while the people who want to take part in the sports seldom choose the Mason River for other reasons. Perhaps, the Mason River is relatively narrow in width, which makes it improper for boating, or perhaps, the water is always cold and deep, so the swimming fans would rather choose the swimming pool not the river, or perhaps, the Mason River has suffered from overfishing in the past which could discourage people to go fishing there. To amend it, the author should provide geographical information of the Mason River such as the width of the river, temperature and depth of the water.

Secondly, the author makes a assertion that the water quality of Maven River will be improved soon by the agency which is responsible for rivers. To support it, the author show that the agency has announced plans to clean up the river. However, this assertion is unwarranted because the author fails to provide any details of the cleaning plans. Without knowing the current condition of the Maven River and corresponding plans proposed by the agency, we have reasons suspect the effect of these plans. Furthermore, the ability of this agency is left to doubts for no past credit of this agency is provided to confirm they are competent to this task. Therefore, until the author could prove that the Maven River will benefit from these cleaning plans and the agency has the ability to carry out the plan, it is too optimistic of the author to believe the quality of Maven River will be improved soon.

Thirdly, even though the recreational use of the Mason River increases due the improved quality of river water, the author's conclusion is unsound for he or she fails to prove that the increased recreational use of the river necessitates the improvement of the publicly owned lands along the Mason River. Maybe, it's not worthwhile to spend money to improve the land as there are only rocks and mud along the river which doesn't have much impact on the enjoyment of the water sport fan. Or perhaps, the land is in such a good condition that there is little need to improve it.

To sum up, this argument is well presented, but not thoroughly reasoned. To make it sound, the author is obliged to provide supporting evidence to confirm the cause which drives the water sport fans away, and prove that the plans announced by the agency are effective in cleaning the water, and at last confirm that it is necessary to increase the budge.