Argument35 【0906G 文以载道三月四月小组】第一周第二次作业 by wsgg

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Argument35
The following appeared in the summary of a study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia.
"Salicylates（水杨酸脂） are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches. Although many foods are naturally rich in salicylates, for the past several decades food-processing companies have also been adding salicylates to foods as preservatives. This rise in the commercial use of salicylates has been found to correlate with a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by participants in our twenty-year study. Recently, food-processing companies have found that salicylates can also be used as flavor additives（食品香料） for foods. With this new use for salicylates, we can expect a continued steady decline in the number of headaches suffered by the average citizen of Mentia."
水杨酸酯和用来治疗头痛的药物--阿司匹林是同一类化合物。尽管很多食品天然富含水杨酸酯，过去几十年中食品加工公司仍然在食品中加入它来作为防腐剂。这种水杨酸酯在商业上的使用被发现与我们为期20年研究的参加者所报告的头痛发病的平均数量下降是相关的。最近，食品加工公司发现水杨酸酯也可以被用作食品香料。根据这种水杨酸酯的新用途，我们可以预期Mentia居民患头痛症的数量将会持续稳步下降。

提纲：
1.潜在前提不一定成立，即水杨酸脂与阿斯匹林都能治疗头痛
2.即使有效，研究中头痛的下降也不一定是因为水杨酸脂的商业使用，还有很多影响因素
3.结论没有根据，即使在一定程度上水杨酸脂的使用可以影响头痛的发病，但依然有很多会使头痛增加的因素，另外，食用水杨酸脂是否越多越好，也无从得知

正文
In this argument, the arguer concludes that the number of headaches suffered by the average citizen of Mentia will decrease with the new use of salicylates as flavor additives for foods. To support the conclusion, the arguer points out that salicylates are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches. In addition, the arguer indicates that its commercial use as preservatives rise with reducing in the average number of headaches in a twenty-year study. The argument suffers from several critical fallacies.

First, the author takes it for granted that salicylates have the same effect in treatment of the headaches, as the root of this argument. But there is no sufficient evidence to establish this statement. The information that salicylates and aspirin are both in the same chemical family is not equal to they can both cure headaches.

Second, the manager overlooks the possibility that one or more factors other than the action of this medicine were instead responsible for the decline reported in the average number of headaches in the study. For instance, perhaps there were some headaches that were not reported or the causes why the situation above-mentioned appeared may be the development of medicine, melioration in environment, or regularity of people’s life style and so on. If so, these facts would seriously weaken the manager’s claim that eating salicylates could reduce the occurrences of headaches.

In addition, the conclusion that there will be a continued steady decline in the number of headaches is unwarranted. Even if eating salicylates has the effect in treatment on headaches, there are many other reasons serving to the increasing conditions, such as expediting of rhythm in life or the augment of pressure in work, so it may not lessen. Besides, it is unknown whether the symptom in headaches would improve with the rise of salicylates on the assumption that they act on the status.

To sum up, the conclusion lacks credibility because the evidence cited in the analysis does not lend strong support to what the arguer maintains. To strengthen the argument, the arguer would have to provide more evidence concerning the iatric function of salicylates.

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