劉文勇GRE寫作Argument題庫 Day 50

Day 50 An ancient, traditional remedy for insomnia—the scent of lavender flowers—has now been proved effective

An ancient, traditional remedy for insomnia— the scent of lavender flowers— has now been proved effective. In a recent study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored electronically. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. At the beginning of the second week, the volunteers discontinued their sleeping medication. During that week, they slept less soundly than the previous week and felt even more tired. During the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two weeks. Therefore, the study proves that lavender cures insomnia within a short period of time.

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）“In a recent study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored electronically. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. At the beginning of the second week, the volunteers discontinued their sleeping medication. During that week, they slept less soundly than the previous week and felt even more tired. During the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two weeks”是事實， “An ancient, traditional remedy for insomnia— the scent of lavender flowers—has now been proved effective”是結論，值得反駁嗎？

（2）在做這個題目之前，建議大家先回顧一下：為什么沒有對照組的實驗是不能輕信的？本段中所描述的實驗有對照組嗎？

（3）30個慢性失眠癥患者能夠代表所有失眠癥患者嗎？“ 30”這個數字足夠大嗎？失眠癥按周期分類，可分為短暫性失眠（小于一周）、短期性失眠（一周至一個月）和慢性失眠（超過一個月），三種類型的患病原因和治療方法各異，所以只研究慢性失眠患者具有代表性嗎？

（4）志愿者在第一周吃安眠藥可以熟睡但感覺疲勞，第二周不吃藥睡得不好且感覺更疲勞，這能體現出熏衣草花香治療失眠的作用嗎？是否可能只是藥物起到了作用？

（5）慢性失眠癥患者的癥狀在第三周得到了緩解，其原因除了可能是熏衣草花香之外，你能否羅列其他的原因？比如：他們已經適應了實驗的環(huán)境，睡前聽莫扎特的音樂、看無聊的書或電視節(jié)目等都可能會緩解失眠。