The following appeared as a letter to the editor from the owner of a skate shop in Central Plaza.
“Two years ago the city council voted to prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. They claimed that skateboard users were responsible for litter and vandalism that were keeping other visitors from coming to the plaza. In the past two years, however, there has been only a small increase in the number of visitors to Central Plaza, and litter and vandalism are still problematic. Skateboarding is permitted in Monroe Park, however, and there is no problem with litter or vandalism there. In order to restore Central Plaza to its former glory, then, we recommend that the city lift its prohibition on skateboarding in the plaza.”
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.
五問:
(1)“In order to restore Central Plaza to its former glory, then, we recommend that the city lift its prohibition on skateboarding in the plaza”是結論,其余部分是事實,值得反駁嗎?
(2)文中是否給出足夠的信息來證明亂丟垃圾、破壞公物和滑板運動之間的關系?它們是否唯一的因果關系?這將如何影響我們對原文的判斷?亂丟垃圾、破壞公物的可能另有其人,例如:廣場上的其他戶外運動者或來購物的顧客。
(3)顧客人數(shù)只有少量增長是否意味著以前的策略是錯誤的?如果沒有禁止滑板運動,那么這個廣場的客流量是否會大幅下降?(在沒有對照組的情況下討論相關因素及其影響的變化都是沒有意義的。)
(4)Monroe Park與Central Plaza之間的差異,除了是否允許滑板運動之外,文中還給出了其他特點嗎?你能想出其他不同之處嗎?例如:旅游景區(qū)與居民區(qū)面臨的破壞公物與亂丟垃圾的壓力可能不同,兩者對這類行為的懲罰力度不同。
(5)Central Plaza曾經(jīng)一派繁榮的原因文中給出了嗎?如果沒有,我們是否可以認為滑板運動這一個因素就可以影響最終結果?例如:人口變遷、經(jīng)濟發(fā)展都是可能影響它繁榮程度的重大要素。