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.
五問:
(1)“Buckingham's enrollment is growing”和“the average rent for an apartment in our town has risen in recent years”是事實;“To serve the housing needs of our students, Buckingham College should build a number of new dormitories”是結論。結論部分不應反駁,但不反駁并不意味著不需要關注。本段的觀點句說建新宿舍是為了滿足學生的住宿需求,而最后一句話說新宿舍能夠吸引更多的學生報考,題目對兩者之間的關系有直接的描述嗎?考生在反駁最后一句話時應當注意。
(2)現(xiàn)在學校的報名人數(shù)有所增加,就意味著以后的報名人數(shù)也會增加嗎?現(xiàn)在的趨勢一定會保持下去嗎?以時間軸作為論證方式,有什么不對的地方?也許以后學生人數(shù)會因其他因素而減少,如學校教學水平、學費、基礎設施等。
(3)50年后才會發(fā)生的問題,是否有必要現(xiàn)在就去解決?
(4)鎮(zhèn)上公寓平均租金上漲,是否通貨膨脹造成的?對比而言,學校宿舍的費用呢?今后是否可能公寓租金減少,而學生的生活費用增加,因此學生依舊選擇住在學校外面呢?而且即便漲價學生就一定租不起嗎?
(5)吸引學生報考的原因除了宿舍之外還有哪些?這些信息都被提及了嗎?比如:學校的教育質量,該校的畢業(yè)生就業(yè)情況等。