在
7. The following appeared in the health section of a magazine on trends and lifestyles.
“People who use the artificial sweetener aspartame are better off consuming sugar, since aspartame can actually contribute to weight gain rather than weight loss. For example, high levels of aspartame have been shown to trigger a craving for food by depleting the brain of a chemical that registers satiety, or the sense of being full. Furthermore, studies suggest that sugars, if consumed after at least 45 minutes of continuous exercise, actually enhance the body’s ability to burn fat. Consequently, those who drink aspartame-sweetened juices after exercise will also lose this calorie-burning benefit. Thus it appears that people consuming aspartame rather than sugar are unlikely to achieve their dietary goals.”
1Insufficient sample: The result of the intake of high level aspartame is not representative of all level intake of aspartame.
2causal oversimplification: It is imprudent to say that the consumption of sugar causes the body to burn fat at a higher speed only because the former occurs in front of the latter.
3gratuitous assumption: The author asserts that people who drink aspartame sweetened juices after exercise will lose the calorie burning benefit without providing any evidence.
8. The following appeared in the editorial section of a corporate newsletter.
“The common notion that workers are generally apathetic about management issues is false, or at least outdated: a recently published survey indicates that 79 percent of the nearly 1,200 workers who responded to survey questionnaires expressed a high level of interest in the topics of corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs.”
1survey is doubtful: Detailed information should be given such as the absolute number of workers of that corporation.
2insufficient sample: The corporation is not representative of all the other corporations.
3gratuitous assumption: It is natural that workers are interested in the topics such as corporate structuring and design of benefits programs. This trend can not be cited to support what the author’s alleges.
9. The following appeared in the opinion column of a financial magazine.
“On average, middle-aged consumers devote 39 percent of their retail expenditure to department store products and services, while for younger consumers the average is only 25 percent. Since the number of middle-aged people will increase dramatically within the next decade, department stores can expect retail sales to increase significantly during that period. Furthermore, to take advantage of the trend, these stores should begin to replace some of those products intended to attract the younger consumer with products intended to attract the middle-aged consumer.”
1The absolute value of consumption should be given by the author.
2all things are equal
3Whether the increase of profit gained by attracting more middle-aged consumers will be offset
by the reduction of profit because of the loss of young consumers.
10. The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.
“This past winter, 200 students from Waymarsh State College traveled to the state capitol building to protest against proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs. The other 12,000 Waymarsh students evidently weren’t so concerned about their education: they either stayed on campus or left for winter break. Since the group who did not protest is far more numerous, it is more representative of the state’s college students than are the protesters. Therefore the state legislature need not heed the appeals of the protesting students.”
1代表学生的形成方式不知道。如果是随机产生的，那么去反对的学生完全可以代表学生总体。
2没去的学生不一定不关心。他们可能有更重要的事情要忙。例如要赶回家过圣诞节。有已经订好的寒假计划等等。
3此外，没去的学生之所以没有去很可能是因为他们觉得那些代表足可以代表他们表达心声。
legislation legislature legislator legitimate illegitimate the state capitol proposed cut
program issue flaw representative unrepresentative represent colleague presumptuous 专横的
one obvious rejoinder to this line of reasoning is that rejoinder反驳
One obvious rejoinder to this line of reasoning is that the students who did not participate did so with the knowledge that their concern would be expressed by the protesting students.
as it stands logically acceptable demonstrate characteristic biase nullify使无效