ARGUMENT37=August Rush=小组第7次作业 尾羽

尾羽UID: 2482591

TOPIC: ARGUMENT37 - Woven baskets characterized by a particular distinctive pattern have previously been found only in the immediate vicinity of the prehistoric village of Palea and therefore were believed to have been unique to the Palean people. Recently, however, archaeologists discovered such a "Palean" basket in Lithos, an ancient village across the Brim River from Palea. The Brim River is very deep and broad, and so the ancient Paleans could only have crossed it by boat, but there is no evidence that the Paleans had boats. And boats capable of carrying groups of people and cargo were not developed until thousands of years after the Palean people disappeared. Moreover, Paleans would have had no need to cross the river-the woods around Palea are full of nuts, berries, and small game. It follows that the so-called Palean baskets were not unique to Palea.
WORDS: 438          TIME: 00:37:02          DATE: 2009-8-14 16:34:38

Basing on the fact that woven baskets were believed to have been unique to the Palean people, but after archaeologists discovered such a "Palean "basket in Lithos and other evidence about boats, the author accordingly concludes that the so-called Palean baskets were not unique to Palea. It seems to be a rational deduction, while a close examination would reveal how groundless it is.

A threshold assumption upon which this argument relies on is that the brim river is too deep and broad to cross without boat. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that it is necessarily the case and it is entirely possible that the brim river was not exist until a tremendous earthquake happened when after the Pelean people had disappeared for a long time. Even if the river is here till today, perhaps the river in was not so deep and wide in ancient that Pelean people were good at swimming to cross over it. Thus, to improve efficiency, the author must present more information about study like something above; otherwise suspicions to the study would be brought out.

What further weakens the conclusion in this argument is the factor that the scientist has not found any evidence about the boat Pelean people had. As concerning the woods around Palea, we can imagine they could cut down some trees to build a wooden bridge for crossing. However, the author has not deny this possibility which indicate that the boat is the unique ways to help Pelean people cross over the river-some weak and ambiguous information is merely thrown into the argument.

Moreover, even assuming that, the author still cannot substantiate the assumption to be warranted that they would have no need to cross the river just because of the foods. An appropriate example is not very far to seek. It is entirely possible that they want to communicate with the people in Lithos taking with the woven basket as a gift for friendship. By the contrast, imagining again that the river was not exist at that time, consequently, the people in Lithos and Pelea could belong to one tribe naturally. That is to say, the Palean baskets and the basket found in Lothio are all unique to the world because they are the same. Under any scenario, adopting the author's proposal might be not persuasive.

As it stands, the conclusion of this argument is not well reasoned. To make it more logically acceptable, the author would have to demonstrate detailed investigations with solid facts about the specific history of the people in Pelean and Lithos and more appropriate deduction that they were not from a same tribe.