argument166 第一次限时,超了十秒,8.2就考试了,紧张,帮忙拍一下好不

豆包UID: 198603

166. The following appeared in a local newspaper.  (425words)
“People should not be misled by the advertising competition between Coldex and Cold Away, both popular over-the-counter cold medications that anyone can purchase without a doctor’s prescription. Each brand is accusing the other of causing some well-known, unwanted side effect: Coldex is known to contribute to existing high blood pressure and Cold-Away is known to cause drowsiness. But the choice should be clear for most health-conscious people: Cold-Away has been on the market for much longer and is used by more hospitals than is Coldex. Clearly, Cold-Away is more effective.


In this argument, the author commends that the best choice for most health-conscious people should be Cold-Away, because it is more effective than Coldex. The commends is based on the assumption that Cold-Away has been on the market for much longer and is used by more hospitals than is Coldex. At the first glance, the argument seems reasonable. But one should not go very far to see the assumption of the argument is groundless.

To begin with, the assumption that Cold-Away is more effective is lacking of credibility. First, the author comes to his or her conclusion by comparing the marketing time of the two medicines. But is Cold-Away really more effective just because it has a longer time on the market? The answer is obviously not. It is common sense that new things come after the old ones and the new always means the more content of technology and more effective. Cars and bicycles are good example to illustrate the phenomenon: when cars appeared on the market the bicycles had been existed for a long time. Apparently, cars are more effective than bicycles and finally replaced the position of the latter. It is quite possible that the two medicines follow the same rule, thus, Coldex is more effective than Cold-Away due to its later appearance and more advanced.

Second, the more widely used of Cold-Away in hospitals could not indicate that  Cold-Away is more effective that Coldex. The author fails to provide the information that why the hospitals tends to use Cold-Away. Do they use it really because it is more effective? The arguer did not mention. It is entirely possible that the hospital use Cold-Away just because they can get a much more profit than using the Coldex. If so, whether Cold-Away is more effective than Coldex is open to doubt.

Furthermore, even assuming that Cold-Away is more effective than Coldex, the author should not come to the conclusion that all health-conscious people should buy Cold-Away. Cold-Away and Coldex are surely not the only two medicines on the market for curing colds. Moreover, as the author mentions, both the two medicine have side effects. There may be other medicine which has no side effect at all and is more effective than the two. Conspicuously, if so, people should not choose the Cold-Away either.

In conclusion, the commendation provided by the author is not well reasoning and lack credibility. To strengthen the argument, more information should be provided to illustrate that the Cold-Away is more effective than Coldex and it is the best choice.

[ Last edited by 豆包 on 2005-7-24 at 15:37 ]

豆包UID: 198603

唉,没人理,自己顶一下吧