劉文勇GRE寫作Argument題庫 Day 75

Day 75 The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago

The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a Batavia newspaper.

“The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. During this same time period, however, the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market has increased from $1.50 to over $3.00 per gallon. To prevent farmers from continuing to receive excessive profits on an apparently increased supply of milk, the Batavia government should begin to regulate retail milk prices. Such regulation is necessary to ensure fair prices for consumers.”

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

五問：

（1）“The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. During this same time period, however, the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market has increased from $1.50 to over $3.00 per gallon”是事實，“To prevent farmers from continuing to receive excessive profits on an apparently increased supply of milk, the Batavia government should begin to regulate retail milk prices”是結(jié)論，值得反駁嗎？

（2）本段論述的目標(biāo)是確保為消費者提供牛奶的“ fair prices”。大家想想看，制定“fair prices”可能受到哪些因素的影響？“ farmers”是否只是諸多因素中的一個？你能說出其他一兩個因素嗎？比如經(jīng)銷商等。請具體描述其他因素是如何影響“ fair prices”的。例如：對于消費者來說合理的價格，可能對于農(nóng)戶和經(jīng)銷商來說并不合理。

（3）奶牛場的數(shù)量比十年前增加了 25%，就意味著牛奶的供應(yīng)量提高了嗎？近幾年瘋牛病頻發(fā)，是否可能導(dǎo)致牛奶產(chǎn)量反而降低了？

（4）將整個 Batavia地區(qū)的牛奶產(chǎn)量增長與local Excello Food Market的價格情況相對應(yīng)，這種做法合理嗎？這種區(qū)域不一致可能導(dǎo)致什么樣的問題？也許只是由于這個 Market租金和運輸成本提高而使牛奶價格上漲，而整個 Batavia地區(qū)的牛奶價格沒有很大變化。筆者僅憑市場表象得出結(jié)論，缺乏對牛奶市場的深入調(diào)查。

（5）你能否嘗試描述這樣一種可能性：由于某種因素的影響（比如農(nóng)業(yè)機械設(shè)備的價格提高）而導(dǎo)致最終的產(chǎn)品價格上漲，但是農(nóng)民的利潤并沒有增加甚至減少了？