The author of the news paper feature story discusses the benefits of living in a

relaxed manner in small town. which promotes better health and longevity than does the hectic
pace of life in big cities. To support his claim he mentions some statistics such as the frequency
of sick leaves taken , proportion of physicians to population, and percentage of old people living
in Mason City and small town called Leeville . But the data collected by the author has many
flaws and are not reliable and specific. So, this evidences provides scanty support for the writer
assumptions .

To start with, the author’s first assumption is when he mentions that the
individual workers in the nearby large city of Mason took more sick leaves than those who lived
in Leeville. But sick leaves are usually a matter of company policy. It is generally seen that in
large companies, which is probably the case in Mason, very few sick leaves are granted.
Whereas, in small town companies, sick leaves are more relaxed , and people take them casually.
So the number of sick leaves do not really indicates actual ill health. The Second point he
mentions is about the proportion of physicians to the population in which he states that in
Leeville there was only one physician for its thousand residents, but in Mason city was to a
thousand residents . Author did not given any data which indicates the number of patients at the
doctors. which shows that number of patients visited the physician per day. The high percentage
of doctors may be more in a big city because many doctors prefer to settle in big cities instead
of small towns due to lack of opportunities, infrastructure, and general facilities and lifestyle.

Then the author has talked about the average age of the people who lived in
Leeville is being more as compared to a Mason . But it could be that the young crowd prefers
to go a larger city for education and employment . So obviously the number of old people lived in
a Leeville could me more, and might be more old people prefer to relocate from big cities to
small town in search of a calm and serene life. So the average age will definitely be higher , but
is not an indicator of better health.

In conclusion, all the statistic and data discussed above is not relevant and
reliable enough to come on any conclusion. So further detail and reliable statistics are needed.