GRE寫作Argument的最佳打開方式

同學們都知道我們的GRE寫作部分有兩項考察形式：Issue與Argument。

Issue更側重于構建自己的論證，而Argument則是需要考生對已有的論證進行評價，看其是否合乎邏輯。雖然兩部分看起來是獨立的，但實際上都是對于論證能力的一種綜合考察。

今天給大家講一篇文章，告訴大家argument全篇的最佳打開方式。

下面是題庫中的13題：

In an attempt to improve highway safety，Prunty County last year lowered its speed limit from 55 to 45 miles per hour on all county highways. But this effort has failed: the number of accidents has not decreased, and, based on reports by the highway patrol, many drivers are exceeding the speed limit. Prunty County should instead undertake the same kind of road improvement project that Butler County completed five years ago：increasing lane widths, resurfacing rough highways, and improving visibility at dangerous intersections. Today, major Butler County roads still have a 55 mph speed limit, yet there were 25 percent fewer reported accidents in Butler County this past year than there were five years ago.

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.

文章分析

The author concludes that Prunty County（PC）should replicate road improvement project of Butler County (BC) in order to improve highway safety. （文章結論）The conclusion is drawn based on the hypothesis that BC decreased the number of accidents last year owing to institution of road improvement five year ago. （文章論據或假設）However, the argument has scarce evidence to prove the validity of this recommendation.（你的評論）

At first, citing that the accidents have not decreased（引文）, the author intends to show failure of speed limits from 55 to 45 miles per hour on all county highways.（推論） However, no decline of accidents does not inevitably mean that the severity of accidents has not decreased. （分析）For example, people had drove cars in the speed limit of 60 miles per hour, they began to slow down to the speed limit of 40 miles per hour. Consequently, once they crashed a pedestrian, the severity of pedestrian injury would possibly lessen from bone fracture to scratch. （分析的細節(jié)，也就是反例）Hence, to substantiate futility of decline in the speed limit, the author should present information concerning severity situation of accidents before and after this change. Looking over accident reportsin PC can strongly explain it. （出招解決，以及怎么解決）

In addition, many drivers are surpassing the speed limit (引文), but readers will still cast doubt on whether “many drivers” stand for most drivers and whether they have slowed down compared with before.（推論的兩點分析） If they constitute a small portion of all drivers, it does not indicate failure of the speed limit because most drivers are stillobeying the regulation. Even if most drivers are driving over the speed limit, they drive from 65mph to 50 mph, which means they do not drive as fast as they used to.（兩點分析的細節(jié)，也就是反例） Therefore, before PC learns from BC, PC should clarify the accurate number of drivers for speeding and their concrete driving speed after change of speed limit. These pieces of evidence can be obtained from monitor records and speeding files in PC.（出招解決，以及怎么解決）

Even if speed limit policy of PC is in vain（與上一段的邏輯承接）, the author implies that because BC had implemented road improvement initiative five years ago（引文）, it successfully decreased accidents this past year than five years ago（引文）. （兩個引文之間的關系，即：兩者關系的分析） So the author employs this hypothesis to justify success of road improvement if speed limit reduction is not advisable.（對上一句的重復） However, firstly, the argument mentions fewer “reported” accidents, so it is doubtful whether reported accidents are all accidents. In fact, the accidents this past year were even more than those five years ago owing that limited funding resulted in fewer police patrolling streets，therefore，BC intentionally hid the actual number of accidents to disguise dereliction of duty. Secondly, even if it did have 25 percent fewer accidents，it did not surely represent significant drop because five years ago there might be only several accidents. As a result, 25 percent fewer might refer to one or two cases. Lastly, the most important issue is that the correlation between accident decrement and road improvement might not have causal relationship. There duction in the number of accidents might be caused by monitor installment on the roads and tougher punishment for speeding and DUI (driving under the influence). （分析的細節(jié)，也就是反例）Accordingly, to clarify whether the road improvement is efficacious to bring fewer accidents, the author should give more evidence including real number of accidents and other reasons why accidents decreased. （出招解決）

Assuming that BC has successfully reduced accidents because of road improvement（與上一段的邏輯承接）, the author commits a false analogy that PC can bring the same result as BC. （推論）He or she naively assumes that two counties have the same road condition. （分析）If road lanes in PC have already been wide，highways are paved well，and police patrol at intersections can efficiently reduce the density of cars and pedestrians, this policy is not apt for PC to drop the number of accidents. Even though there are the same reasons of accidents in PC and BC, this new plan needs the support of government funds, such as hiring some workers and buying paving machines to pave highways, sending morepolice to dangerous intersections. Unfortunately, PC’s government does not have sufficient budget to make this change. （分析的細節(jié)，也就是反例）Consequently, offering more reports concerning the differences of road and financial situation between two citiesare essentially necessary to assess rationality of recommendation.  （出招解決）

Decreasing accidents and improving city’s safety are the responsibility of city government, and BC’s road improvementmight be a recommendable solution to road problems of PC. （夸文章結論）The author should demonstrate more evidenceto ensure that PC can yield the same result by road improvement. （但要加證據）

在argument當中，有幾個問題需要和大家重點強調一下：

1. 關于字數和段落：以上文章寫的字數和段落比較多，如果想拿到3分，中間展開2段，這2段250詞左右就好了；如果想拿4分，中間展開2-3段，這2-3段300詞左右就好。如果想拿高分，4分以上的話，思路豐富，字數肯定要多一些。

2. 關于語言：3分對語言沒要求；4分表達清晰即可，語言不用太高級。但4分以上的語言一定是精煉準確的。

3. 關于反例：反例只要符合常識即可，沒有唯一答案。

4. 關于開頭和結尾：3-4分沒時間可以不寫，但要爭取更高的分數最好寫出來。

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