Argument 45 [7\8\9\10]AW作文小组 7.22 第2次作业

atreusUID: 2471951

TOPIC: ARGUMENT45 - The following appeared as an editorial in a wildlife journal.

"Arctic deer live on islands in Canada's arctic region. They search for food by moving over ice from island to island during the course of a year. Their habitat is limited to areas warm enough to sustain the plants on which they feed, and cold enough, at least some of the year, for the ice to cover the sea separating the islands, allowing the deer to travel over it. Unfortunately, according to reports from local hunters, the deer populations are declining. Since these reports coincide with recent global warming trends that have caused the sea ice to melt, we can conclude that the decline in arctic deer populations is the result of deer being unable to follow their age-old migration patterns across the frozen sea."
WORDS: 499          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2008-7-22 10:43:35

The argument concludes that the decline in arctic deer populations is result of deer being unable to follow their habits of moving over ice from island to island for food. Meanwhile the arguer cites the reports from the local hunters to bolster the conclusion. The arguments have fallacies in several aspects.

The threshold problem with the argument is that the logic fallacy of whether the arctic deer moving over ice from island to island during the course of a year. Common sense tells us that the habits of animals are determined by their living environment and their purposes of thriving, namely the food and sex. As the argument said, the arctic deer lives the areas warm enough to sustain the plants on which they feed, it is quiet possible that the deer need not to travel between the islands to seek more. Maybe they travel to another island to seek the mates, but not the food.  Another logic problem with the argument is that when the year is cold enough for the ice to cover the sea separating the islands, the plants on the cold islands may not be hardy to live. Thus, the arctic deer traveling there also could not get sufficient food, which renders their moving over islands for food unreasonable.

Secondly, the author cites the reports from local hunters to sustain the assumption that the deer populations are declining. The author provides no evidence how many local hunters are surveyed, and the numbers of deer viewed by them are representative of the overall deer populations. The local hunters may not live on the islands where deer live, so they could no tell the exacting variance of the deer population. Because, the wildlife animals on the Arctic are dispersed randomly, mostly they live the place beyond human being's exploration and investigation. Lacking evidence of a sufficient result of the deer populations, the author can not justifiably rely on the reports from local hunter to draw any conclusion that the populations are declining.   

Thirdly, the argument unfairly assumes that the global warming trends that caused the sea ice to melt are attributable to the decline in the arctic deer populations, because the deer are unable to migration between islands. There is no evidence to show that the global warming affects the Arctic deer migration patterns severely in the argument, the coincidence the reports with the global warming trends could not establish the cause and effect relationship. Besides, other factors such as the unable sex ratio, less chance of pregnancy and enfeeble new born deer, also make the populations decline naturally.

In sum, the argument is wholly unpersuasive. To bolster it the author must provide more information about the evidence that the arctic deer travels between islands for seeking food and the situation that global warming trends affect the Arctic area. To better value the argument, the author should provide the exact evidence about the populations of the deer to judge the trend of which is declining or increasing.

[ 本帖最后由 atreus 于 2008-7-22 14:07 编辑 ]

sstonehuUID: 2379503

The argument concludes that the decline in arctic deer populations is result of deer being unable to follow their habits of moving over ice from island to island for food. Meanwhile the arguer cites the reports from the local hunters to bolster the conclusion. The arguments have fallacies in several aspects.The threshold problem with the argument is that the logic fallacy of whether the arctic deer moving over ice from island to island during the course of a year. Common sense tells us that the habits of animals are determined by their living environment and their purposes of thriving, namely the food and sex. As the argument said, the arctic deer lives the areas warm enough to sustain the plants on which they feed, it is quiet possible that the deer need not to travel between the islands to seek more. Maybe they travel to another island to seek the mates, but not the food.  Another logic problem with the argument is that when the year is cold enough for the ice to cover the sea separating the islands, the plants on the cold islands may not be hardy to live. Thus, the arctic deer traveling there also could not get sufficient food, which renders their moving over islands for food unreasonable.Secondly, the author cites the reports from local hunters to sustain the assumption that the deer populations are declining. The author provides no evidence how many local hunters are surveyed, and the numbers of deer viewed by them are representative of the overall deer populations. The local hunters may not live on the islands where deer live, so they could not tell the exacting variance of the deer population. Because, the wildlife animals on the Arctic are dispersed randomly, mostly they live the place beyond human being's exploration and investigation. Lacking evidence of a sufficient result of the deer populations, the author cannot justifiably rely on the reports from local hunter to draw any conclusion that the populations are declining.    Thirdly, the argument unfairly assumes that the global warming trends that caused the sea ice to melt are attributable to the decline in the arctic deer populations, because the deer are unable to migration between islands. There is no evidence to show that the global warming affects the Arctic deer migration patterns severely in the argument, the coincidence the reports with the global warming trends could not establish the cause and effect relationship. Besides, other factors such as the unable sex ratio, less chance of pregnancy and enfeeble new born deer, also make the populations decline naturally.In sum, the argument is wholly unpersuasive. To bolster it the author must provide more information about the evidence that the arctic deer travels between islands for seeking food and the situation that global warming trends affect the Arctic area. To better value the argument, the author should provide the exact evidence about the populations of the deer to judge the trend of which is declining or increasing.
Argument一般来说都很少有错….. 写的不错