【Flyer杀G作文组】7.20-Argument46-By CC

师大菜菜UID: 2838404

TOPIC: ARGUMENT46 - Although black bears are common in the eastern Canadian province of Labrador, grizzly bears-often similar in color, but much larger-were believed to exist only in the western provinces. Despite a nineteenth-century explorer's account of having startled and narrowly escaped from a grizzly bear deep in the woods in Labrador, modern scientists find no physical evidence that grizzly bears have ever lived in Labrador. But recent research into the language and legends of the Innu, a people who have lived in Labrador for thousands of years, reveals that their language has words for two different kinds of bears, and their ancient legends attribute different characteristics to the two kinds of bears. Therefore, there probably were grizzly bears in Labrador, and the explorer's account probably accurately identified the bear.
WORDS: 412
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2010/7/20 15:18:49

In this argument, the speaker asserts that there probably were grizzly bears in Labrador (L), and h explorer's account probably accurately identified the bear. To support the conclusion, the author cites a result of a recent research on the language and legends of Innu which reveals that the language has words for two different kinds of bears and their ancient legends also attribute different characteristics to the two kinds of bears. Although the argument might be considered as reasonable at first glance, it suffers several logical fallacies which I will discuss as follow.

To begin with, the speaker assumes that the two different kinds of bears in language and legends of Innu are black bears and grizzly bears. However, the speaker fails to give evidence to support it. It is possible that the two bears don't include grizzly bear. For example, the two bears are just ancient bears which have become extinct for a long time. It is also possible that the two words just represent two genders of black bears. In these cases, the two kinds of bears also have different characteristics just as the attributing by legends. Without ruling out these possibilities, the arguer cannot convince me that the two different kinds of bears are black bears and grizzly bears.

What's more, even if I accepted that the two words represent black bears and grizzly bears, the author still fails to prove that the two kinds of bears are in L. It is possible that the people of L often walk a long distance to seek food and the two words were used to represent bears which they met in other places rather than in L. The author fails to take account of the alternative explanation, his or her conclusion is not reasonable.


Last but not least, even if there were grizzly bears in L, the explorer’s account are also possible not accurate. The author fails to give more details about the explorer's account. What should he or she do is take more carefully analyzing to confirm that the animal of explorer's account is just grizzly bear. It is possible that the animal that the explorer met is other kinds of animals which is like grizzly bear in appearance. So the explorer just mistakes the animal as grizzly bear. The author fails to rule out this possibility, his or her reasoning is definitely flawed.


To sum up, the argument unpersuasive, because it cannot ensure the two crucial assumptions are convincing. In order to draw a better conclusion, the author should provide more evidence to support that there were grizzly bears in L. It is also necessary to give careful survey on the explorer's account.