Revision

I. Identify the assumptions in the following situations. Evaluate the assumption.

1. New drugs have been developed which can combat the body’s tendency to reject transplanted
organs. In the past, most of the deaths which have occurred shortly after heart transplant
operations have been due to rejection. So it is likely that these new drugs will improve the
survival rate of heart transplant patients.
2. Some people say that the depiction of violence on television has no effect on viewers’
behavior. However, if what was shown on television did not affect behavior, television
advertising would never influence viewers to buy certain products. But we know that it does.
So it cannot be true that television violence does not affect behavior.
3. The peak age for committing crime both in the UK and the US is 14-15 for girls and 17-18 for
boys. We therefore need to put in place strong deterrents against committing crime for both of
these groups.

II. Identify the reasoning structure in the following examples, then evaluate the strength of
the argument

1. Introducing an extra written test for learner drivers in the UK will do nothing to reduce the
high accident rate amongst drivers aged 17 to 21, because it will not improve their driving
skills. In Portugal, every aspiring driver has to have five weeks’ theoretical instruction and a
stiff examination before he or she is legally entitled to touch the wheel, but this does not
result in a low accident rate amongst new drivers. The test is regarded by most as a
bureaucratic hurdle to be jumped and forgotten about as soon as possible. All it indicates is
that the candidate can read and write. It has no bearing on his or her ability to drive.

2. If people became healthier as the affluence of the country increased, we would expect the
population to be healthier now than it was thirty years ago. But over the last thirty years, new
illnesses, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, have appeared, and we have become more
vulnerable to old diseases such as heart disease, strokes and cancer. So the increased wealth
of the country has not produced improvements in the health of the population.

3. During the last fifty years, researchers have explored gender differences and their relation to
academic achievement and several theories have been proposed to explain why girls do less
well at maths than boys. Boaler (1997) suggests that girls underachievement in maths is due
to the teaching methods in schools which favour boys. This theory is supported by Byrne who
explains that underachievement in maths 'springs from adverse conditioning in the primary
years' (Byrne, 1978). It is clear that if we want to increase the numbers of girls entering
higher education to study maths we need to change the way they are taught in schools.

References:
Byrne, E. M. (1978) Women and Education, Routledge, [online]. Available from
http://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=xNoNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA35&dq=girls+maths#PPA36,M1 [accessed 17 December
2008]