劉文勇GRE寫作Argument題庫 Day 14

Day 14 A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep the executives needand the success of their firms

The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine.

“A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep the executives need and the success of their firms. Of the advertising firms studied, those whose executives reported needing no more than 6 hours of sleep per night had higher profitsmargins and faster growth. These results suggest that if a business wants to prosper, it should hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night.”

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

五問：

（1）“These results suggest that if a business wants to prosper, it should hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night”是結(jié)論，其余部分是事實(shí)，值得反駁嗎？

（2）本題是一個(gè)經(jīng)過調(diào)查研究得出結(jié)論的題目。首先我們應(yīng)該關(guān)注：樣本的數(shù)量是否夠大？（對于整個(gè)廣告行業(yè)來說 300人太少了吧。）樣本與最終得出的結(jié)論之間的關(guān)系如何？是否具備代表性？如果這 300人正好是在激勵(lì)員工加班的公司工作呢？那就不具備代表性了。原文中調(diào)查的樣本是以廣告業(yè)作為對象的，而結(jié)論卻說所有的商業(yè)模式都應(yīng)該如此，這種類比合適嗎？廣告業(yè)是否具有不同于其他商業(yè)模式的特質(zhì)？而這些特質(zhì)是否會(huì)影響這些廣告經(jīng)理的睡眠時(shí)長？例如：因?yàn)閺V告方案經(jīng)常要做很多個(gè)，客戶又比較著急，廣告經(jīng)理需要加班才能趕在期限前完成，導(dǎo)致睡眠時(shí)間減少。另外，平均值能在任何情況下都代表個(gè)體值嗎？

（3）更高的利潤與更快的增長這兩個(gè)結(jié)果真的是由更少的睡眠帶來的嗎？真的“只是”由于更少的睡眠導(dǎo)致的嗎？他們之間的因果關(guān)系是否完整且唯一？是否會(huì)受到其他因素的影響？你能具體地羅列一兩個(gè)因素嗎？例如：員工能力更強(qiáng)，經(jīng)營策略更好，與更多知名品牌合作。或者因果關(guān)系倒置？正是由于公司增長速度快，工作量增加，才導(dǎo)致廣告經(jīng)理睡眠減少。

（4）即便優(yōu)秀的管理者需要的睡眠時(shí)間的確少于六小時(shí)，我們是否就能簡單地說，少于六小時(shí)的睡眠時(shí)間就一定能夠造就一個(gè)優(yōu)秀的管理者？二者之間是簡單的對等關(guān)系嗎？還是包含與被包含的關(guān)系？

（5）即便睡眠時(shí)間少的人真的適合擔(dān)任管理職務(wù)，那是否就能得出結(jié)論說只有這種人適合擔(dān)任管理職務(wù)？睡眠超過六小時(shí)但是工作效率更高的人就不該招聘嗎？