Argument33【0906G 文以载道三月四月小组】第一周第二次作业 by gjw

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===============第二次作业===============
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。

In this argument, the arguer advocates that the number of headaches suffered by the average citizen of Mentia will decrease steadily because of the new use of salicylates. To support the conclusion, the arguer points out the evidence that the rise in the commercial use of salicylates correlate with a steady decline in the everage number of headaches in a twenty-year study. Furthermore, food processing companies have found that salicylates can be also used as flavor additives. Although the evidence seems to be strong, the statement suffers several logical flaws.

In the first place, the arguer oversimplifies the influence of salicylates on people's health to some extent. Due to the different dining habits and eating culture, people’s food differs from each other in different areas. Even if the absorbability of salicylates could makes certain contribiutions to solving the problem of people’s headaches. There are also some important points worth considering. For example, because many foods are naturally rich in salicylates, and the food--processing companies have also been adding salicylates to foods as perservatives, the salicylates that people have absorbed would be enough. If  the salicylates that people eat are more than their bodies need daily, they will possibly have no effect on headache,or even be harmful.

In the second place, this argument does not refer to the exact number of participants among all the citizens in Mentia. Maybe, the number of other people who did not participate in  the study increases.
Finally, the arguer confuses causal relation with correlation. This argument does not provide any evidence that the commercial use of salicylates leads directly to the steady decline in the average number of headaches. In fact, the common sense tells us that different factors, such as nervousness, pollution,cold and some congenital illness, can cause people to have the same syndrome: headache.  It is possible that during the last twenty years, the enviroment of this city has improved, or the conponents of citizens' diet have changed, or the working hours of this city have been shortened, etc. The arguer ignores all the above possibilities that may affect headache. We could not also rule out the possibility that many people refuse to buy the food that made by the food--processing company because they dislike any preservatives and flavor additives, consequently they prefer to choose the food that naturally rich in salicylates.

In conclusion, the arguer fails to establish a strong relationship between reducing headaches and using salicylates. To strenghthen the argument, the arguer would have to provide more evidences that lacking of salicylates is the only cause that leads to headache.

[ 本帖最后由 gjw 于 2009-1-13 17:46 编辑 ]