GREAW全题库
Argument 全题库
1. Woven baskets characterized by a particular distinctive pattern have previously been found only in the
immediate vicinity of the prehistoric village of Palea and therefore were believed to have been made
only by the Palean people. Recently, however, archaeologists discovered such a "Palean" basket in
Lithos, an ancient village across the Brim River from Palea. The Brim River is very deep and broad,
and so the ancient Paleans could have crossed it only by boat, and no Palean boats have been found.
Thus it follows that the so-called Palean baskets were not uniquely Palean.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and
explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
2. The following appeared as part of a letter to the editor of a scientific journal.
"A recent study of eighteen rhesus monkeys provides clues as to the effects of birth order on an
individual's levels of stimulation. The study showed that in stimulating situations (such as an
encounter with an unfamiliar monkey), firstborn infant monkeys produce up to twice as much of the
hormone cortisol, which primes the body for increased activity levels, as do their younger siblings.
Firstborn humans also produce relatively high levels of cortisol in stimulating situations (such as the
return of a parent after an absence). The study also found that during pregnancy, first-time mother
monkeys had higher levels of cortisol than did those who had had several offspring."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the
proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts
presented in the argument.
3. The following appeared as a letter to the editor from a Central Plaza store owner.
"Over the past two years, the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while
the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically. Many Central Plaza store owners believe
that the decrease in their business is due to the number of skateboard users in the plaza. There has
also been a dramatic increase in the amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza. Thus, we
recommend that the city prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. If skateboarding is prohibited here,
we predict that business in Central Plaza will return to its previously high levels."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide
whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers
to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
4. The following appeared in a letter from a homeowner to a friend.
"Of the two leading real estate firms in our town — Adams Realty and Fitch Realty — Adams Realty
is clearly superior. Adams has 40 real estate agents; in contrast, Fitch has 25, many of whom work
only part-time. Moreover, Adams' revenue last year was twice as high as that of Fitch and included
home sales that averaged $168,000, compared to Fitch's $144,000. Homes listed with Adams sell
faster as well: ten years ago I listed my home with Fitch, and it took more than four months to sell;
last year, when I sold another home, I listed it with Adams, and it took only one month. Thus, if you
want to sell your home quickly and at a good price, you should use Adams Realty."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be
sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the
argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
5. The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Balmer Island Gazette.
"On Balmer Island, where mopeds serve as a popular form of transportation, the population increases
to 100,000 during the summer months. To reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds and
pedestrians, the town council of Balmer Island should limit the number of mopeds rented by the
island's moped rental companies from 50 per day to 25 per day during the summer season. By
, limiting the number of rentals, the town council will attain the 50 percent annual reduction in moped
accidents that was achieved last year on the neighboring island of Seaville, when Seaville's town
council enforced similar limits on moped rentals."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide
whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers
to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
6. Arctic deer live on islands in Canada's arctic regions. They search for food by moving over ice from
island to island during the course of the year. Their habitat is limited to areas warm enough to sustain
the plants on which they feed and cold enough, at least some of the year, for the ice to cover the sea
separating the islands, allowing the deer to travel over it. Unfortunately, according to reports from local
hunters, the deer populations are declining. Since these reports coincide with recent global warming
trends that have caused the sea ice to melt, we can conclude that the purported decline in deer
populations is the result of the deer's being unable to follow their age-old migration patterns across the
frozen sea.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and
explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
7. The following is a recommendation from the Board of Directors of Monarch Books.
"We recommend that Monarch Books open a café in its store. Monarch, having been in business at
the same location for more than twenty years, has a large customer base because it is known for its
wide selection of books on all subjects. Clearly, opening the café would attract more customers.
Space could be made for the café by discontinuing the children's book section, which will probably
become less popular given that the most recent national census indicated a significant decline in the
percentage of the population under age ten. Opening a café will allow Monarch to attract more
customers and better compete with Regal Books, which recently opened its own café."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide
whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers
to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
8. The following appeared in a memo from the director of student housing at Buckingham College.
"To serve the housing needs of our students, Buckingham College should build a number of new
dormitories. Buckingham's enrollment is growing and, based on current trends, will double over the
next 50 years, thus making existing dormitory space inadequate. Moreover, the average rent for an
apartment in our town has risen in recent years. Consequently, students will find it increasingly
difficult to afford off-campus housing. Finally, attractive new dormitories would make prospective
students more likely to enroll at Buckingham."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and
explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
9. Nature's Way, a chain of stores selling health food and other health-related products, is opening its next
franchise in the town of Plainsville. The store should prove to be very successful: Nature's Way
franchises tend to be most profitable in areas where residents lead healthy lives, and clearly Plainsville
is such an area. Plainsville merchants report that sales of running shoes and exercise clothing are at all-
time highs. The local health club has more members than ever, and the weight training and aerobics
classes are always full. Finally, Plainsville's schoolchildren represent a new generation of potential
customers: these schoolchildren are required to participate in a fitness-for-life program, which
emphasizes the benefits of regular exercise at an early age.
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be
sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the
argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
10. Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia. Using an observation-
centered approach to studying Tertian culture, he concluded from his observations that children in
Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. Recently another
, anthropologist, Dr. Karp, visited the group of islands that includes Tertia and used the interview-
centered method to study child-rearing practices. In the interviews that Dr. Karp conducted with
children living in this group of islands, the children spent much more time talking about their biological
parents than about other adults in the village. Dr. Karp decided that Dr. Field's conclusion about Tertian
village culture must be invalid. Some anthropologists recommend that to obtain accurate information on
Tertian child-rearing practices, future research on the subject should be conducted via the interview-
centered method.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide
whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain
how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
11. The council of Maple County, concerned about the county's becoming overdeveloped, is debating a
proposed measure that would prevent the development of existing farmland in the county. But the
council is also concerned that such a restriction, by limiting the supply of new housing, could lead to
significant increases in the price of housing in the county. Proponents of the measure note that Chestnut
County established a similar measure ten years ago, and its housing prices have increased only
modestly since. However, opponents of the measure note that Pine County adopted restrictions on the
development of new residential housing fifteen years ago, and its housing prices have since more than
doubled. The council currently predicts that the proposed measure, if passed, will result in a significant
increase in housing prices in Maple County.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide
whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how
the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.
12. Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to
evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. Since that time, Omega professors have
begun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at Omega have risen
by 30 percent. Potential employers, looking at this dramatic rise in grades, believe that grades at Omega
are inflated and do not accurately reflect student achievement; as a result, Omega graduates have not
been as successful at getting jobs as have graduates from nearby Alpha University. To enable its
graduates to secure better jobs, Omega University should terminate student evaluation of professors.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and
explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
13. In an attempt to improve highway safety, Prunty County last year lowered its speed limit from 55 to 45
miles per hour on all county highways. But this effort has failed: the number of accidents has not
decreased, and, based on reports by the highway patrol, many drivers are exceeding the speed limit.
Prunty County should instead undertake the same kind of road improvement project that Butler County
completed five years ago: increasing lane widths, resurfacing rough highways, and improving visibility
at dangerous intersections. 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.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and
explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
14. The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine.
"A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average
number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep the
executives need and the success of their firms. Of the advertising firms studied, those whose
executives reported needing no more than 6 hours of sleep per night had higher profit margins and
faster growth. These results suggest that if a business wants to prosper, it should hire only people who
need less than 6 hours of sleep per night."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be
sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the
argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
, 15. The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.
"Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the
southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact,
only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of
100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers
who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these
customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either
butter or margarine."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the
proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts
presented in the argument.
16. The following appeared in a memorandum from the manager of WWAC radio station.
"To reverse a decline in listener numbers, our owners have decided that WWAC must change from its
current rock-music format. The decline has occurred despite population growth in our listening area,
but that growth has resulted mainly from people moving here after their retirement. We must make
listeners of these new residents. We could switch to a music format tailored to their tastes, but a
continuing decline in local sales of recorded music suggests limited interest in music. Instead we
should change to a news and talk format, a form of radio that is increasingly popular in our area."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and
explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
17. The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station.
"Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less
time to weather and local news. During this period, most of the complaints received from viewers
were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition, local businesses
that used to advertise during our late-night news program have canceled their advertising contracts
with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs and to avoid losing any
further advertising revenues, we should expand our coverage of weather and local news on all our
news programs."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be
sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the
argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
18. Two years ago, radio station WCQP in Rockville decided to increase the number of call-in advice
programs that it broadcast; since that time, its share of the radio audience in the Rockville listening area
has increased significantly. Given WCQP's recent success with call-in advice programming, and citing
a nationwide survey indicating that many radio listeners are quite interested in such programs, the
station manager of KICK in Medway recommends that KICK include more call-in advice programs in
an attempt to gain a larger audience share in its listening area.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide
whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain
how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
19. The following appeared in an article written by Dr. Karp, an anthropologist.
"Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia and concluded from
his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own
biological parents. However, my recent interviews with children living in the group of islands that
includes Tertia show that these children spend much more time talking about their biological parents
than about other adults in the village. This research of mine proves that Dr. Field's conclusion about
Tertian village culture is invalid and thus that the observation-centered approach to studying cultures
is invalid as well. The interview-centered method that my team of graduate students is currently using
in Tertia will establish a much more accurate understanding of child-rearing traditions there and in
other island cultures."
