2012gre作文大讲堂:GRE作文范文大全(111)
Argument 42
The following appeared in the editorial section of a health and fitness magazine.
"In a study of the effects of exercise on longevity, medical researchers tracked 500
middle-aged men over a 20-year period. The subjects represented a variety of occupations in
several different parts of the country and responded to an annual survey in which they were
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asked: How often and how strenuously do you exercise? Of those who responded, the men
who reported that they engaged in vigorous outdoor exercise nearly every day lived longer
than the men who reported that they exercised mildly only once or twice a week. Given the
clear link that this study establishes between longevity and exercise, doctors should not
recommend moderate exercise to their patients but should instead encourage vigorous
outdoor exercise on a daily basis."
This editorial concludes that to maximize longevity people should engage in vigorous
outdoor exercise on a daily basis. To support this conclusion the editorial cites a 20-year study
of 500 middle-aged men in which, among subjects responding to an annual survey, those who
followed this regimen lived longer, on average, than those who exercised mildly once or twice
per week. A careful analysis of the study reveals several problems with the editorial's
argument.
First of all, the excerpt provides no information about the number of respondents or their
occupational or residential profiles. The fewer respondents, the less reliable the study's results.
Also, the narrower the spectrum of occupations and geographic areas represented among
respondents, the more likely that one of these two phenomena, rather than exercise, played
the key role in the subjects' longevity. Moreover, once a subject dies it would be impossible for
that subject to respond to the annual survey. Unless a sufficient number of subjects from
diverse geographic areas and occupations responded accurately and on a regular basis, and
unless accurate responses were made on behalf of deceased subjects, I simply cannot accept
the editorial's condusion.
Secondly, a 20-year time span might not be sufficient to gauge the longevity of the study's
subjects; that is, until a significant number of subjects have died, it is impossible to determine
with certainty the effect of exercise on the subjects' longevity as a group. Lacking information
about how many deaths among the 500 subjects were reported by the end of the study, it is
impossible to draw any reliable conclusion about the relationship between exercise and
longevity.
Thirdly, the editorial fails to indicate how many or what percentage of the respondents
engaged in vigorous outdoor exercise on a daily basis. Lacking this information, it is entirely
possible that only a few subjects matched this profile and that those few subjects happened to
live to an old age--due to some factor other than exercise habits. The longevity of a small
number of respondents is scant evidence upon which to draw any broad conclusions about the
effect of exercise on longevity. 感谢您阅读《GRE作文范文大全(111) 》一文,出国留学网(liuxue86.com)编辑部希望本文能帮助到您。
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