66. The following appeared in an article in a travel magazine.
"After the airline industry began requiring airlines to report their on-time rates, Speedee Airlines achieved the number one on-time rate, with over 89 percent of its flights arriving on time each month. And now Speedee is offering more flights to more destinations than ever before. Clearly, Speedee is the best choice for today's business traveler."
67. The following appeared in a memorandum to the planning department of an investment firm.
"Costs have begun dropping for several types of equipment currently used to convert solar energy into electricity. Moreover, some exciting new technologies for converting solar energy are now being researched and developed. Hence we can expect that solar energy will soon become more cost efficient and attractive than coal or oil as a source of electrical power. We should, therefore, encourage investment in Solario, a new manufacturer of solar-powered products. After all, Solario's chief executive was once on the financial planning team for Ready-to-Ware, a software engineering firm that has shown remarkable growth since its recent incorporation."
1The decrease of the cost of several types of equipment does not necessarily guarantee the reduction of the overall cost of the conversion of solar energy into electricity.
2It is still too early to say that the technologies for converting the solar energy that are being researched and developed will certainly make the solar energy cost efficient and attractive.
3Even if the cost reduction of the solar energy is immediately accessible, it is still imprudent to say the solar energy is more attractive compared with the coal and oil as a source of electrical power.
4The former performance of the CEO does not guarantee the future success of the Solario. From the autor's assertion, the CEO's ability to manage this solar energy company is, in fact, somewhat dubious, because he or she once was on the financial planning team for Ready-to-ware, which is in the industry completely different from the Solario.
68. The following appeared in a memorandum from a company's marketing department.
"Since our company started manufacturing and marketing a deluxe air filter six months ago, sales of our economy filter-and company profits-have decreased significantly. The deluxe air filter sells for 50 percent more than the economy filter, but the economy filter lasts for only one month while the deluxe filter can be used for two months before it must be replaced. To increase repeat sales of our economy filter and maximize profits, we should discontinue the deluxe air filter and concentrate all our advertising efforts on the economy filter."
1The positive statistical correlation between the decrease of profit and the marketing of a deluxe air filter can just be a coincidence. Other reasons such as the severer competition should be considered and ruled out.
2The author's suggestion is based on a groundless assumption that the consumers will resume buying the economy filter if the company stop manufacturing the deluxe air filter.
3Other alternatives other than the stop of the manufacturing of the deluxe filter have not been considered by the author, thus making the suggestion gratuitous.
69. The following appeared in a memorandum from the president of a company that makes (旧题有修饰词Glabrous) shampoo.
"A widely publicized study claims that HR2, a chemical compound in our shampoo, can contribute to hair loss after prolonged use. This study, however, involved only 500 subjects. Furthermore, we have received no complaints from our customers during the past year, and some of our competitors actually use more HR2 per bottle of shampoo than we do. Therefore, we do not need to consider replacing the HR2 in our shampoo with a more expensive alternative."
1If the 500 subjects are randomly chosen and represent a diverse cross section of the population of shampoo users, the result will be reliable.
2The side-effects of HR2 is suggested by the study after prolonged use. Therefore, the fact cited by the president of the shampoo company that there was no complaint from consumers last year can not guarantee no emergence of problems in the future.
3The last fact cited by the president that other companies have more HR2 per bottle is not relevant to this case. The criterion to judge whether to use a more expensive alternative is based on the effect of using the H
R2. What is more, if we change to use the alternative while the competitors do not, we can gain reputation among the consumers.
71. The following appeared as part of a recommendation from the business manager of a department store.
"Local clothing stores reported that their profits decreased, on average, for the three-month period between August 1 and October 31. Stores that sell products for the home reported that, on average, their profits increased during this same period. Clearly, consumers are choosing to buy products for their homes instead of clothing. To take advantage of this trend, we should reduce the size of our clothing departments and enlarge our home furnishings and household products departments."
1A period of three month is too short to draw a general conclusion of the overall trend.
2The past three months' trend does not guarantee the same in the future.
3Whether the reports from the local clothing stores and stores that sell products for the home are reliable or not are still open to doubt, thus making the author's suggestion groundless.
72. The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a regional newspaper.
"In response to petitions from the many farmers and rural landowners throughout our region, the legislature has spent valuable time and effort enacting severe laws to deter motorists from picking fruit off the trees, trampling through the fields, and stealing samples of foliage. But how can our local lawmakers occupy themselves with such petty vandalism when crime and violence plague the nation's cities? The fate of apples and leaves is simply too trivial to merit their attention."
1The author is presenting a false dilemma by imposing an either-or choice between two courses of action that need not be mutually exclusive.
2The author underestimate the severity of the rural problems.
3The degree of the severity of the illegal problems in the rural areas is irrelevant to the argument of the author. The legislation's responsibility is to establish laws to solve the emerging problems regardless of the level of the severity.
73. The following appeared as part of an editorial in a campus newspaper.
"With an increasing demand for highly skilled workers, this nation will soon face a serious labor shortage. New positions in technical and professional occupations are increasing rapidly, while at the same time the total labor force is growing slowly. Moreover, the government is proposing to cut funds for aid to education in the near future."
1The increasing demand for highly skilled workers does not represent the overall situation.
2The author's prediction is based on an assumption that the current workforce is less than the demand or at least equal to the demand. However, the fact can likely be that the people who are willing to work are much more than the occupations that are offered.
3The reduction of government fund for the education aid does not necessarily indicate less skilled workers in the near future unless the statistic of the portion of students who are relying on the aid has been given.
72. The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a regional newspaper.
"In response to petitions from the many farmers and rural landowners throughout our region, the legislature has spent valuable time and effort enacting severe laws to deter motorists from picking fruit off the trees, trampling through the fields, and stealing samples of foliage. But how can our local lawmakers occupy themselves with such petty vandalism when crime and violence plague the nation's cities? The fate of apples and leaves is simply too trivial to merit their attention."
73. The following appeared as part of an editorial in a campus newspaper.
"With an increasing demand for highly skilled workers, this nation will soon face a serious labor shortage. New positions in technical and professional occupations are increasing rapidly, while at the same time the total labor force is growing slowly. Moreover, the government is proposing to cut funds for aid to education in the near future."
74. The following appeared as part of a memorandum from a government agency.
"Given the limited funding available for the building and repair of roads and bridges, the government should not spend any money this year on fixing the bridge that crosses the Styx River. This bridge is located near a city with a weakening economy, so it is not as important as other bridges; moreover, the city population is small and thus unlikely to contribute a significant enough tax revenue to justify the effort of fixing the bridge."
75. The following appeared as part of an article in an entertainment magazine.
"A series of books based on the characters from a popular movie are consistently bestsellers in local bookstores. Seeking to capitalize on the books' success, Vista Studios is planning to produce a movie sequel based on the books. Due to the success of the books and the original movie, the sequel will undoubtedly be profitable."
76.The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a popular science and technology magazine.
"It is a popular myth that consumers are really benefiting from advances in agricultural technology. Granted - consumers are, on the average, spending a decreasing proportion of their income on food. But consider that the demand for food does not rise in proportion with real income. As real income rises, therefore, consumers can be expected to spend a decreasing proportion of their income on food. Yet agricultural technology is credited with having made our lives better."
1real income 可能因为通货膨胀等因素并没有上升
2相应的粮食份额也可能没有下降
3农业技术给我们带来的好处不只是经济方面的还有可以提供更环保更安全的食品
77. The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.
"This city should be able to improve existing services and provide new ones without periodically raising the taxes of the residents. Instead, the city should require that the costs of services be paid for by developers who seek approval for their large new building projects. After all, these projects can be highly profitable to the developers, but they can also raise a city's expenses and increase the demand for its services."
78. The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.
"In order to avoid the serious health threats associated with many landfills, our municipality should build a plant for burning trash. An incinerator could offer economic as well as ecological advantages over the typical old-fashioned type of landfill: incinerators can be adapted to generate moderate amounts of electricity, and ash residue from some types of trash can be used to condition garden soil."
79. The following appeared in the editorial section of a monthly business newsmagazine.
"Most companies would agree that as the risk of physical injury occurring on the job increases, the wages paid to employees should also increase. Hence it makes financial sense for employers to make the workplace safer: they could thus reduce their payroll expenses and save money."
80. The following appeared as part of a company memorandum.
"Adopting an official code of ethics regarding business practices may in the long run do our company more harm than good in the public eye. When one of our competitors received unfavorable publicity for violating its own code of ethics, it got more attention from the media than it would have if it had had no such code. Rather than adopt an official code of ethics, therefore, we should instead conduct a publicity campaign that stresses the importance of protecting the environment and assisting charitable organizations."
81. The following appeared in the editorial section of a daily newspaper.
"Although forecasts of presidential elections based on opinion polls measure current voter preference, many voters keep changing their minds about whom they prefer until the last few days before the balloting. Some do not even make a final decision until they enter the voting booth. Forecasts based on opinion polls are therefore little better at predicting election outcomes than a random guess would be."
82. The following appeared in the editorial section of a newspaper in the country of West Cambria.
"The practice of officially changing speed limits on the highways - whether by increasing or decreasing them - is a dangerous one. Consider what happened over the past decade whenever neighboring East Cambria changed its speed limits: an average of 3 percent more automobile accidents occurred during the week following the change than had occurred during the week preceding it - even when the speed limit was lowered. This statistic shows that the change in speed limit adversely affected the alertness of drivers."
83. The following appeared as part of a memorandum from the vice president of Nostrum, a large pharmaceutical corporation.
"The proposal to increase the health and retirement benefits that our employees receive should not be implemented at this time. An increase in these benefits is not only financially unjustified, since our last year's profits were lower than those of the preceding year, but also unnecessary, since our chief competitor, Panacea, offers its employees lower health and retirement benefits than we currently offer. We can assume that our employees are reasonably satisfied with the health and retirement benefits that they now have since a recent survey indicated that two-thirds of the respondents viewed them favorably."
84. The following appeared as part of an article on trends in television.
"A recent study of viewers' attitudes toward prime-time television programs shows that many of the programs that were judged by their viewers to be of high quality appeared on (noncommercial) television networks, and that, on commercial television, the most popular shows are typically sponsored by the best-selling products. Thus, it follows that businesses who use commercial television to promote their products will achieve the greatest advertising success by sponsoring only highly-rated programs - and, ideally, programs resembling the highly-rated noncommercial programs on public channels as much as possible."
85. The following appeared as part of an article in the business section of a daily newspaper.
"Company A has a large share of the international market in video-game hardware and software. Company B, the pioneer in these products, was once a $12 billion-a-year giant but collapsed when children became bored with its line of products. Thus Company A can also be expected to fail, especially given the fact that its games are now in so many American homes that the demand for them is nearly exhausted."