2006年写作考试辅导之GMAT作文黄金80题二

　　二.Analysis of Argument Questions

　　1、The following appeared as part of an annual report sent to stockholders by Olympic Foods, a processor of frozen foods.

　　Over time, the costs of processing go down because as organizations learn how to do things better, they become more efficient. In color film processing, for example, the cost of a 3-by-5-inch print fell from 50 cents for five-day service in 1970 to 20 cents for one-day service in 1984. The same principle applies to the processing of food. And since Olympic Foods will soon celebrate its twenty-fifth birthday, we can expect that our long experience will enable us to minimize costs and thus maximize profits.

　　2、The following appeared in a memorandum from the business department of the Apogee Company.

　　When the Apogee Company had all its operations in one location, it was more profitable than it is today. Therefore, the Apogee Company should close down its field offices and conduct all its operations from a single location. Such centralization would improve profitability by cutting costs and helping the company maintain better supervision of all employees.

　　6、The following appeared as part of an article in a magazine devoted to regional life.

　　Corporations should look to the city of Helios when seeking new business opportunities or a new location. Even in the recent recession, Helioss unemployment rate was lower than the regional average. It is the industrial center of the region, and historically it has provided more than its share of the regions manufacturing jobs. In addition, Helios is attempting to expand its economic base by attracting companies that focus on research and development of innovative technologies.

　　8、The following appeared in the editorial section of a corporate newsletter.

　　The common notion that workers are generally apathetic about management issues is false, or at least outdated: a recently published survey indicates that 79 percent of the nearly 1,200 workers who responded to survey questionnaires expressed a high level of interest in the topics of corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs.

　　9、The following appeared in the opinion column of a financial magazine.

　　On average, middle-aged consumers devote 39 percent of their retail expenditure to department store products and services, while for younger consumers the average is only 25 percent. Since the number of middle-aged people will increase dramatically within the next decade, department stores can expect retail sales to increase significantly during that period. Furthermore, to take advantage of the trend, these stores should begin to replace some of those products intended to attract the younger consumer with products intended to attract the middle-aged consumer.

　　10、The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.

　　This past winter, 200 students from Waymarsh State College traveled to the state capitol building to protest against proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs. The other 12,000 Waymarsh students evidently werent so concerned about their education: they either stayed on campus or left for winter break. Since the group who did not protest is far more numerous, it is more representative of the states college students than are the protesters. Therefore the state legislature need not heed the appeals of the protesting students.

　　11、The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.

　　In the first four years that Montoya has served as mayor of the city of San Perdito, the population has decreased and the unemployment rate has increased. Two businesses have closed for each new business that has opened. Under varro, who served as mayor for four years before Montoya, the unemployment rate decreased and the population increased. Clearly, the residents of San Perdito would be best served if they voted Montoya out of office and reelected varro.

　　12、The following appeared as part of a promotional campaign to sell advertising space in the Daily Gazette to grocery stores in the Marston area.

　　Advertising the reduced price of selected grocery items in the Daily Gazette will help you increase your sales. Consider the results of a study conducted last month. Thirty sale items from a store in downtown Marston were advertised in the Gazette for four days. Each time one or more of the 30 items was purchased, clerks asked whether the shopper had read the ad. Two -thirds of the 200 shoppers asked answered in the affirmative. Furthermore, more than half the customers who answered in the affirmative spent over $100 at the store.

　　13、The following appeared as part of a campaign to sell advertising time on a local radio station to local businesses.

　　The Cumquat Cafe began advertising on our local radio station this year and was delighted to see its business increase by 10 percent over last years totals. Their success shows you how you can use radio advertising to make your business more profitable.

　　14、The following appeared as part of a newspaper editorial.

　　Two years ago Nova High School began to use interactive computer instruction in three academic subjects. The school dropout rate declined immediately, and last years graduates have reported some impressive achievements in college. In future budgets the school board should use a greater portion of the available funds to buy more computers, and all schools in the district should adopt interactive computer instruction throughout the curriculum.

　　16、The following appeared as part of an article in the education section of a Waymarsh City newspaper.

　　Throughout the last two decades, those who earned graduate degrees found it very difficult to get jobs teaching their academic specialties at the college level. Those with graduate degrees from Waymarsh University had an especially hard time finding such jobs. But better times are coming in the next decade for all academic job seekers, including those from Waymarsh. Demographic trends indicate that an increasing number of people will be reaching college age over the next ten years; consequently, we can expect that the job market will improve dramatically for people seeking college -level teaching positions in their fields.

　　17、The following appeared in an article in a consumer-products magazine.

　　Two of todays best-selling brands of full-strength prescription medication for the relief of excess stomach acid, Acid-Ease and Pepticaid, are now available in milder nonprescription forms. Doctors have written 76 million more prescriptions for full-strength Acid-Ease than for full-strength Pepticaid. So people who need an effective but milder nonprescription medication for the relief of excess stomach acid should choose Acid-Ease.

　　28、The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.

　　Commuter use of the new subway train is exceeding the transit companys projections. However, commuter use of the shuttle buses that transport people to the subway stations is below the projected volume. If the transit company expects commuters to ride the shuttle buses to the subway rather than drive there, it must either reduce the shuttle bus fares or increase the price of parking at the subway stations.

　　31、The following appeared as part of the business plan of an investment and financial consulting firm.

　　Studies suggest that an average coffee drinkers consumption of coffee increases with age, from age 10 through age 60. Even after age 60, coffee consumption remains high. The average cola drinkers consumption of cola, however, declines with increasing age. Both of these trends have remained stable for the past 40 years. Given that the number of older adults will significantly increase as the population ages over the next 20 years, it follows that the demand for coffee will increase and the demand for cola will decrease during this period. We should, therefore, consider transferring our investments from Cola Loca to Early Bird Coffee.

　　32、The following appeared in the editorial section of a West Cambria newspaper.

　　A recent review of the West Cambria volunteer ambulance service revealed a longer average response time to accidents than was reported by a commercial ambulance squad located in East Cambria. In order to provide better patient care for accident victims and to raise revenue for our town by collecting service fees for ambulance use, we should disband our volunteer service and hire a commercial ambulance service.

　　34、The following appeared as part of a plan proposed by an executive of the Easy Credit Company to the president.The Easy Credit Company would gain an advantage over competing credit card services if we were to donatea portion of the proceeds from the use of our cards to a well-known environmental organization in exchange for the use of its symbol or logo on our card. Since a recent poll shows that a large percentage of the public is concerned about environmental issues, this policy would attract new customers, increase use among existing customers, and enable us to charge interest rates that are higher than the lowest ones available.

　　38、The following appeared in the editorial section of a campus newspaper.

　　Because occupancy rates for campus housing fell during the last academic year, so did housing revenues. To solve the problem, campus housing officials should reduce the number of available housing units, thereby increasing the occupancy rates. Also, to keep students from choosing to live off-campus, housing officials should lower the rents, thereby increasing demand.

　　39、The following appeared in an Avia Airlines departmental memorandum.

　　On average, 9 out of every 1,000 passengers who traveled on Avia Airlines last year filed a complaint about our baggage-handling procedures. This means that although some 1 percent of our passengers were unhappy with those procedures, the overwhelming majority were quite satisfied with them; thus it would appear that a review of the procedures is not important to our goal of maintaining or increasing the number of Avias passengers.

　　40、The following appeared as part of an article in a weekly newsmagazine.

　　The country of Sacchar can best solve its current trade deficit problem by lowering the price of sugar, its primary export. Such an action would make Sacchar better able to compete for markets with other sugar-exporting countries. The sale of Sacchars sugar abroad would increase, and this increase would substantially reduce Sacchars trade deficit.

　　43、The following appeared in an article in the health section of a newspaper.

　　There is a common misconception that university hospitals are better than community or private hospitals. This notion is unfounded, however: the university hospitals in our region employ 15 percent fewer doctors, have a 20 percent lower success rate in treating patients, make far less overall profit, and pay their medical staff considerably less than do private hospitals. Furthermore, many doctors at university hospitals typically divide their time among teaching, conducting research, and treating patients. From this it seems clear that the quality of care at university hospitals is lower than that at other kinds of hospitals.

　　44、The following is part of a business plan created by the management of the Megamart grocery store.