【Try Best】第一小组 argument167 by cababo

cababoUID: 2648869

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: 351          TIME: 00:30:00          DATE: 6/14/2009 10:24:42 PM
In the argument, the arguer concludes that the scent lavender is effactive for treating insomnia, depending on an experiment in which 30 insomniacs slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room with their sleep monitored. There are some critical probloms with the experiment. Those problems undermine the arguer's argument.
Firstly, the arguer did not give a clear defination for the term"insomnia". If "insomnia" means "not able to get into sleep", then no matter how soudly or long the volunteers sleep, it can not be prooved that the scent in lavender flowers has effect for insomnia.
Secondly, there are some problems in the process of the experiment. From the first two weeks' experiment, we can only conclude that the medacation has some effect for the volunteers. We can not see any effect from the scent in lavender flowers.  In the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly then the previous two weeks. But we can not say that the scent in lavender helped to cure insomnia at all. Maybe the scent in lavender exagevated even the insomnia. But the volunteers just got adapted to it after two weeks. And also, after two weeks' lack of sleep, it is possible that the volunteers get better sleep because of the tiedness, even without any effect from the scent of lavender flowers.
Thirdly, because it is a experiment in only a relatively short time, we need to make sure that the volunteers got much better after the dealing with treatment than they were before the experiment. Howerver, the arguer omits this.
Fourthly, the number of the subjects is not large enough. Is the experiment reliable methmatically and statistically?  
To sum up, the arguer failed to give a clear defination for insomnia in the beginning. And there are several critical problems with the experiment. To make the conclusion reliable, we need to make a clear defination for insomnia, make clear control in the experiment, make sure all other factors that might affect the experiment remains constant in the whole process, and set a statistically convincing number of the subjects.

GG86_FlyUID: 2641450

In the argument, the arguer concludes that the scent lavender is effective for treating insomnia, depending on an experiment in which 30 insomniacs slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room with their sleep monitored. There are some critical problems with the experiment. Those problems undermine the arguer's argument.
Firstly, the arguer did not give a clear definition for the term "insomnia". If "insomnia" means "not able to get into sleep", then no matter how soundly or long the volunteers sleep, it can not be proved that the scent in lavender flowers has effectiveness for insomnia.
Secondly, there are some problems in the process of the experiment. From the first two weeks' experiment, we can only conclude that the medication has some effectiveness for the volunteers. We can not see any effect from the scent in lavender flowers.  In the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than the previous two weeks. But we can not say that the scent in lavender helped to cure insomnia at all. Maybe the scent in lavender exagevated even the insomnia ？？. But the volunteers just got adapted to it after two weeks. And also, after two weeks' lack of sleep, it is possible that the volunteers get better sleep because of the tiredness, even without any effect from the scent of lavender flowers.
Thirdly, because it is an experiment in only a relatively short time, we need to make sure that the volunteers got much better after the dealing with treatment than they were before the experiment. However, the arguer omits this.
Fourthly, the number of the subjects is not large enough. Is the experiment reliable mathematically? and statistically?  
To sum up, the arguer failed to give a clear definition for insomnia in the beginning. And there are several critical problems with the experiment. To make the conclusion reliable, we need to make a clear definition for insomnia, make clear control in the experiment, make sure all other factors that might affect the experiment remains constant in the whole process,前面几段没提到这个吧 and set a statistically convincing number of the subjects.