劉文勇GRE寫作Argument題庫 Day 15

Day 15 Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States

The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.

“Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term ‘butter’ to refer to either butter or margarine.”

Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.

五問：

（1）“Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States”“only about 2 percent of customers have complained”和“many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead”是事實，“This change, however, has had little impact on our customers”是結(jié)論，值得反駁嗎？

（2）只有 2%的人抱怨就意味著只有 2%的人不滿嗎？我們能否簡單地將抱怨等同于不滿，將不抱怨等同于滿意呢？是否有雖然不滿意卻也沒有抱怨的顧客？當(dāng)要黃油時沒有被遞給黃油，而是給了人造黃油，顧客不抱怨就意味著他們不能區(qū)分黃油與人造黃油或者用“butter”既指黃油又指人造黃油嗎？有沒有可能是因為顧客接受了這種替代品，或者他們本身就不太喜歡抱怨？

（3）數(shù)字與百分比能夠直接等價嗎？在沒有提及受訪者總數(shù)的情況下，得出的結(jié)論有參考意義嗎？

（4）我們應(yīng)當(dāng)如何改進對顧客的調(diào)查，才能更好地了解顧客的心態(tài)？我們應(yīng)當(dāng)如何對待顧客的要求，才能真實地判定顧客是否無法區(qū)分黃油與人造黃油？例如：直接告訴顧客提供的是人造黃油，看顧客對此的態(tài)度。

（5）many是明確的數(shù)據(jù)嗎？ many servers占服務(wù)生總量的多少？ many servers如果都來自同一家店的話，那還具有代表性嗎？由服務(wù)員所作的報告（ servers have reported）一定是準(zhǔn)確的嗎？可能帶有哪些偏向性？你能列舉可能的傾向嗎？例如：服務(wù)員為了自己的利益（怕被扣工資）而隱瞞了真實的情況。