ARGUMENT35 =August Rush=小组第6次作业 by 尾羽

尾羽UID: 2482591

TOPIC: ARGUMENT35 - The following appeared in the summary of a study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia.

"Salicylates 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 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."

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2009-7-31 23:55:48 上传

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要死了。。。越写越慢，咋办@_@!!!~也不知道怎么写着写着，就写成4段了。。。

尾羽UID: 2482591

WORDS: 491          TIME: 01:17:59          DATE: 2009-7-31 15:41:50

Basing on the a 20-year study that since the increase of using salicylates as preservatives for foods, a steady decline in the average number of headaches has been reported by anticipants, and the fact that salicylates are effective for treatment of headaches, the author accordingly conclude that with the new use that salicylates as flavor additives for food, a continued steady decline of the average number of headaches is coming. It seems to be a rational deduction with a long-term study, while a close examination would reveal how groundless it is.

To begin with, the author fails to provide sufficient evidence to prove that the stable reduce of the number of headache patients by average definitely due to the increasing use of salicylates as preservatives in the commercial. The author ignores to consider several factors that may affect the accurate of the conclusion. Firstly, there is no information that whether the salicylates were eaten by people as perservatives with food. We can imagine that how salicylates could work for treatment of heahaches if the anticipants did not take it though. And it is also possible that the anticipants take other medicines too, when they suffer the headaches. That is to say, the decline of the amount of anticipants may totally contribute to other factors rather than the salicylates. Moreover, the author also has not presented the details of the patients that what the specific reason is causing their headaches. There is entirely possibility that considerable amount of anticipants’' headaches as an acute disease which resulted by physical hurt would be cured via an operation during the so long time 20 years. In addition, according to information presented by the author that many foods are naturally abundant in salicylates, we consequently conclude that anticipants' reducing number of headaches, maybe, due to the salicylates in the food naturally rather than the addition by the food-processing companies. Thus, unless these possibilities have been excluded, the author's claim would be more acceptable.

What further weakens the conclusion is that even if the reducing average number of anticipants is attributed by salicylates as preservatives, the author's claim still cannot be persuasive that salicylates used as flavor additives for food which would be as same effect as the preservatives. The threshold question: are all anticipants in the study from Mentia? People in Mentia may prefer natural food to processed production because they suppose it is a healthier and environmental friendly way of life. Therefore, the author has to assert the expectation more carefully.

As it stands, the conclusion of this argument is not well reasoned. To make it more logically acceptable, the author would have to demonstrate more detailed information with solid fact of the 20-year study and appropriate deduction, such as how much the degree of function of the sylicylates neither as preservatives or as flavor additives, and what is the concrete  state of the headaches of the citizens in Mentia.