0710G同主题写作之argument167

lintiUID：2364152

TOPIC: ARGUMENT167 - A folk remedy* for insomnia, the scent in lavender flowers, has now been proved effective. In a recent study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. During the second week, the volunteers discontinued their medication. As a result, they slept less soundly than the previous week and felt even more tired. During the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two weeks. This shows that over a short period of time lavender cures insomnia.

*A folk remedy is usually a plant-based form of treatment common to traditional forms of medicine, ones that developed before the advent of modern medical services and technology.
WORDS: 418          TIME: 00:30:00          DATE: 2007-8-3 18:28:04

At the first glance, the statement appears convincing. The author gets the conclusion that lavender cures insomnia over a short period on the assumption of a recent study which seems strictly conducted during three weeks. However, further scrutiny reveals that the study lend no credible support to the conclusion.

Primarily,whether the study is representative is open to doubt. There is a good chance that the 30 voluteers can not reflect the common chronic insomnia; they may just on the behalf of certain people suffering from the insomnia. Furthermore, three weeks may be not long enough to demonstrate that lavender flowers can cure insomnia. It's highly possible that the lavender flowers may have side-effect after three weeks.

Even if the participants can represent all the patients and three weeks is approriate to reflect the effect of lavendar flowers, the experimental process is not strict enough. Firstly, the experiment lack a control group compared with the experiment group. Consequently, the result which may just come from the subjective feeling is unpersuable. Common sense tells us that when we are treated by some medicine , we will feel optimisically about our disease. I think it will much more acceptable to set a group of volunteers with insomnia of the same degree, who are just told to take placebo while they receive the same process of the experimental group.

Furthermore, the result of the third week is vulnerable to bolster the conclusion. On the one hand, the volunteers did not tell us their feelings after the study. perhaps, they feel much more tired. On the other hand, even if they feel better, the arguer can not exclude the effect of sleeping medication which may have a long time influence.

In addition, the definition of insomnia in the statement is unclear. The patient who suffers insomnia are more concerned with whether they can go asleep and how long it will take them to go to sleep. In the study, the author just points out the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than previous two weeks. However, he/she fails to indicate whether the volunteer can easily get to sleep.

To sum up, the study is insufficient and even vulnerable to substantiate the conclusion. To better evaluate the argument, the author shoud set a control group, point out the feeling of the volunteers in the third week and eventually demonstrate the lavender flowers actually effect in the cure of chronic insomnia patients. Considering all the factors above, the argument may finally arrive at the conclusion