3. The following appeared in a memorandum issued by a large citys council on the arts.
In a recent citywide poll, fifteen percent more residents said that they watch television programs about the visual arts than was the case in a poll conducted five years ago. During these past five years, the number of people visiting our citys art museums has increased by a similar percentage. Since the corporate funding that supports public television, where most of the visual arts programs appear, is now being threatened with severe cuts, we can expect that attendance at our citys art museums will also start to decrease. Thus some of the citys funds for supporting the arts should be reallocated to public television.
Discuss how well reasoned... etc.
In this argument the author concludes that the city should allocate some of its arts funding to public television. The conclusion is based on two facts: attendance at the citys art museum has increased proportionally with the increases in visual-arts program viewing on public television, and public television is being threatened by severe cuts in corporate funding. While this argument is somewhat convincing, a few concerns need to be addressed.
To begin with, the argument depends on the assumption that increased exposure to the visual arts on television, mainly public television, has caused a similar increase in local art-museum attendance. However, just because increased art-museum attendance can be statistically correlated with similar increases in television viewing of visual-arts programs, this does not necessarily mean that the increased television viewing of arts is the cause of the rise in museum attendance.
Moreover, perhaps there are other factors relevant to increased interest in the local art museum; for instance, maybe a new director had procured more interesting, exciting acquisitions and exhibits during the period when museum attendance increased, in addition, the author could be overlooking a common cause of both increases. It is possible that some larger social or cultural phenomenon is responsible for greater public interest in both television arts programming and municipal art museums.
To be fair, however, we must recognize that the authors assumption is a special case of a more general one that television viewing affects peoples attitudes and behavior. Common sense and observation tell me that this is indeed the case. After all, advertisers spend billions of dollars on television ad time because they trust this assumption as well.
In conclusion, I am somewhat persuaded by this authors line of reasoning. The argument would be strengthened if the author were to consider and rule out other significant factors that might have caused the increase in visits to the local art museum.
政府改革 government reform
中国“受污染耕地”达5000万亩
湖南严查“破坏选举”案
全面深化“农村改革”
习近平现身“包子铺”
“高铁抽烟”将严惩
中印“边防合作协议”
中国“海外房地产投资”创新高
全会:市场在“资源配置”中起决定性作用
“厨房废气”成空气治理新焦点
韩国成“购物新宠”
北京高考英语“减分”
FDI 外国直接投资
春节前交管部门将开展“安全大检查”
十八届三中全会公报要点双语对照
奶粉自动售货机 vs. 专营店
国家“治理体系”
债务展期 debt extension
苏州“旅游地图”发布
治理“公车腐败”
“改善型购房者”怎么说?
首条“跨省地铁”开通
中国“海归”增多
“国家级新区”改革促进政府“职能转变”
老外在中国参加“午夜弥撒”
提高“信息透明度”
雾霾导致“停课”
自上而下的“壮士断腕式的”改革
“电动出租车”现身北京通州
恒大“亚冠”夺冠
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |