ARGUMENT18 =August Rush=小组第6次作业 by crepuscularlyw

crepuscularlywUID: 2645654

TOPIC: ARGUMENT18 - The following appeared in an editorial in a Prunty County newspaper.

"In an attempt to improve highway safety, Prunty County recently lowered its speed limit from 55 miles per hour to 45 on all major county roads. But the 55 mph limit should be restored, because this safety effort has failed. Most drivers are exceeding the new speed limit and the accident rate throughout Prunty County has decreased only slightly. If we want to improve the safety of our roads, we should instead undertake the same kind of road improvement project that Butler County completed five years ago: increasing lane widths and resurfacing rough roads. Today, major Butler County roads still have a 55 mph speed limit, yet there were 25 percent fewer reported accidents in Butler County this past year than there were five years ago."
WORDS: 429
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2009-8-3 23:21:32

In this argument, the arguer points out that since the safety effort has failed so that the Prunty County(PC) should take the Butler County(BC)'s road improvement project completed five years ago, which was proved successful. Plausible as the facts are, we find they are misleading after deliberation. The reasons are as follows.

To begin with, the arguer makes a false analogy between the PC and BC and takes it for granted that what suits BC will certainly suits for PC. We all know as there cannot be two similar leaves in the world the cities can also have some distinctions. For instance, BC increased the lane widths and resurfacing rough road because its road condition is not that good, however, maybe the PC's road condition is perfect so that it is no need for PC to restore the road. I can make a dare assumption that it is the careless traffic regulation or the lack of safety consciousness like drinking wine before driving, ignore the traffic rules that lead to the accidents. In order to make his claim convincing the arguer should provide us more information about the disparity between these two counties to decide what the real reason is that result in the traffic accidents.

Secondly, the arguer is too assertive to say that the new speed limit effort is proved to be meaningless. Since PC decrease the speed from 55 to 45 and there are still many drivers exceed this speed, this result maybe because that driver are not get used to the new regulation thus we may doubt that the time to testify the validity of the new effort is too short to make a conclusion. Maybe the speed is declining and drivers are trying to get used to the new speed. This safety effort should be executed for a longer time in order to get the correct result.

Thirdly, as the arguer cites BC still have a 55 mph speed limit and there were 25 percent fewer reported accidents in BC the past year than were five years ago. Fewer accidents than the former years do not mean the number of the accidents is small. To draw a conclusion, we need the statistics concerning the actual number of the accidents these five years.

To sum up, the arguer's argument is not persuasive. To bolster it, the arguer should reason more detailed and reasonable, provide some statistics relate to the disparity of these two counties, the actual number of the accidents of BC as well as proving the feasibility of the speed limit effort of PC.

唉~因为小组才讨论过的，事先看过题了，要不肯定没思路。。。