劉文勇GRE寫作Argument題庫 Day 72

Day 72 Your recent article on corporate downsizing in Elthyria maintains that the majority of competent workers who have lost jobs as a result of downsizing face serious economic hardship, often for years, before finding other suitable employment

The following appeared as a letter to the editor of a national newspaper.

“Your recent article on corporate downsizing* in Elthyria maintains that the majority of competent workers who have lost jobs as a result of downsizing face serious economic hardship, often for years, before finding other suitable employment. But this claim is undermined by a recent report on the Elthyrian economy, which found that since 1999 far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated, bringing the unemployment rate in Elthyria to its lowest level in decades. Moreover, two-thirds of these newly created jobs have been in industries that tend to pay above-average wages, and the vast majority of these jobs are full-time.”

*Downsizing is the process whereby corporations deliberately make themselves smaller, reducing the number of their employees.

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.

五問：

*“downsizing”是什么意思呢？原文中給出了釋義的名詞不同于一般的專有名詞，一定要仔細閱讀；如果這個專有名詞對原文的理解沒有影響， ETS就應(yīng)該像對待其他專有名詞那樣對待這個單詞，不會進行任何解釋。因此，本文中的解釋顯然會在文本的理解中起到重要作用。

（1）“But this claim is undermined by a recent report on the Elthyrian economy”是結(jié)論，其余部分是事實，值得反駁嗎？

（2）原文采用了 a recent report作為主要的論述手段：我們應(yīng)該思考以前學(xué)習(xí)過的內(nèi)容——什么樣的 report才能起到良好的論證作用呢？需要具備哪些條件？需要提供哪些方面的信息？這些信息在原文中是否提及了呢？

（3）新創(chuàng)造的工作機會比減少的工作機會多，是否意味著工作就更好找了呢？找工作的除了被解雇的人之外，是否還有其他群體？比如剛剛從學(xué)校畢業(yè)的新鮮勞動力。注意到這一點可能對原文的命題及論述起到什么樣的作用？如果新鮮勞動力所占就業(yè)比例更大，那該論據(jù)缺乏對結(jié)論的支持性。

（4）三分之二新創(chuàng)造的工作崗位的狀況能否代表所有工作崗位的狀況？是否有一種典型的錯誤類型叫作“大比例數(shù)據(jù)替代錯誤”？

（5）新創(chuàng)造的工作崗位是否適合中老年勞動力？原文中是否給出了足夠的信息來證明這一點？許多新創(chuàng)造的工作是由科技發(fā)展帶來的，中老年勞動力可能并不具備這些新的工作技能。