劉文勇GRE寫作Argument題庫 Day 61

Day 61 For many years the city of Grandview has provided annual funding for the Grandview Symphony

The following appeared in an article in the Grandview Beacon.

“For many years the city of Grandview has provided annual funding for the Grandview Symphony. Last year, however, private contributions to the symphony increased by 200 percent and attendance at the symphony's concerts-in-the-park series doubled. The symphony has also announced an increase in ticket prices for next year. Given such developments, some city commissioners argue that the symphony can now be fully self-supporting, and they recommend that funding for the symphony be eliminated from next year's budget.”

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）“For many years the city of Grandview has provided annual funding for the Grandview Symphony. Last year, however, private contributions to the symphony increased by 200 percent and attendance at the symphony's concerts-in-the-park series doubled. The symphony has also announced an increase in ticket prices for next year”是事實， “they recommend that funding for the symphony be eliminated from next year's budget”是結(jié)論，值得反駁嗎？

（2）去年的情況就一定和今年的一致嗎？和明年的也一致嗎？我們能否簡單地進(jìn)行時間軸論證，認(rèn)為每一年的情況都趨于一致？或者認(rèn)為某種趨勢將會延續(xù)？你能說說哪些因素可能會對這種趨勢造成影響嗎？例如：人們的音樂喜好變了，或者經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)使交響樂團(tuán)的私人贊助減少。另外，在沒有基數(shù)的前提下，給出百分比 200%和倍數(shù)有參考意義嗎？如果私人資助只占總資助的很微小的一部分呢？即使翻很多倍也不一定能使交響樂團(tuán)實現(xiàn)經(jīng)濟(jì)獨(dú)立。

（3）明年提高票價之后還一定會有同樣多的觀眾嗎？票價能夠決定最終的利潤嗎？銷售量和成本恐怕都會起到較大的作用。你能具體說說其他要素是如何影響最終獲利的嗎？如果票價提高導(dǎo)致觀眾減少，樂器的購買和維護(hù)費(fèi)用、人員的工資等成本高于收入的話，利潤都會受到影響。

（4）為什么我們不能簡單地認(rèn)為，交響樂團(tuán)獲得利潤就意味著一定能夠完全自營？因為只有自營的利潤或許不足以維持它的高水準(zhǔn)，而且政府資助可以提高交響樂團(tuán)的穩(wěn)定性和聲譽(yù)，從而使樂團(tuán)獲得更多的演出機(jī)會，完全自營則會失去以上優(yōu)勢。

（5）即便交響樂團(tuán)有盈利，就意味著要完全取消下一年的預(yù)算嗎？折中的方案是否更為合適？例如：在私人資助增加和票房收入提高的情況下，政府資助可以適當(dāng)減少。