For each of the following arguments, identify the main conclusion and the reasons. Say
whether there are any intermediate conclusions. Say whether the reasons are intended to
support the conclusion jointly or independently.
1 There’s no good reason to object to paying for admission to museums and art
galleries. After all, you have to pay to go to the theatre or to listen to a concert.
2 A study by psychiatrists at the Royal Free Hospital in London compared treatments
for two groups of about seventy patients suffering from depression. In one group,
patients were given twelve sessions of psychotherapy; in the other, they were given
routine care from their general practitioner. They all improved significantly over the
next nine months, and there were no differences between the two groups in the rate
and extent of improvement. Psychotherapy is thus no more effective than chatting
with your GP.
3 The ban on smoking in public places in the UK is likely to be accepted without
much protest. In Spain and Italy, countries in which the percentage of smokers
is higher than in the UK, there have been no major problems arising from a similar
ban.
4 Testing drugs on animals cannot give us the information we need in order to assess
safety for humans, because animals are too different from humans. The evidence for
this is that some drugs which appeared safe in animal tests have been harmful to
humans, and that aspirin and penicillin are poisonous to cats.
5 The birth rate in European countries is declining very fast. This means that even
though people are living longer, eventually the size of the population will fall, and
there will be fewer and fewer people of working age to sustain an ageing population.
Either it will be necessary to raise the retirement age, or younger people will have to
increase their productivity at work.
6 The introduction of tests on drivers for drugs such as cannabis is being considered,
and it has been suggested that a zero limit may be set. The result would be
that someone with even a small amount of cannabis in the bloodstream could
be prosecuted. This would be unfair because some people whose driving was
not impaired could be prosecuted, since cannabis can remain in the bloodstream
for up to four months. So if drug tests are introduced, the limit should not be set
at zero.
7 It is clear that global warming is occurring, but we cannot be confident that it is
caused by the burning of fossil fuels which produce high levels of carbon dioxide.
The earth has experienced warmer climates and higher levels of carbon dioxide in
previous ages, long before the current high level of fuel use.
8 Smoking related illnesses don’t really cost the state as much as is often claimed. If no
one smoked, the revenue from taxes would be massively reduced, and many smokers
will die before collecting their full share of health and retirement benefits.
9 Transplanting animal organs into humans should not be allowed. These transplants
are expensive to perform, and the risk of animal diseases being transmitted to
humans cannot be ruled out. It should be possible to solve the shortfall of organs
available for transplant by persuading more people to carry organ donor cards. A
human organ must give a human being a better chance of survival.
10 [If killing an animal infringes its rights, then] never may we destroy, for our convenience,
some of a litter of puppies, or open a score of oysters when nineteen would
have sufficed, or light a candle in a summer evening for mere pleasure, lest some
hapless moth should rush to an untimely end. Nay, we must not even take a walk,
with the certainty of crushing many an insect in our path, unless for really important
business! Surely all this is childish. In the absolute hopelessness of drawing a line
anywhere, I conclude that man has an absolute right to inflict death on animals,
without assigning any reason, provided that it be a painless death, but that any
infliction of pain needs its special justification.
11 The number of people likely to die as a result of eating infected meat during the
epidemic of BSE (‘mad cow disease’) in the late 1980s is much lower than originally
expected. First predictions were that thousands would die over the following 50
years. If this had been an accurate estimate, many more than the 129 cases so far
reported in Britain would have occurred by now.
12 Environmentalists who are concerned about the likelihood of extinction of many
animal and plant species suggest that protected areas should be introduced worldwide.
But in some poor countries this would prevent people using the only natural
resource available to them. Economic aid should be given to such countries, in
addition to setting up protected areas, because without such aid the poor would be
paying the price of conservation, rather than the international community.
13 It is sometimes said that men are better than women at navigating. The evidence for
this is that men are better at mentally rotating maps, and can solve mazes faster.
However, the claim that this makes men the best navigators is too simplistic. Women
are much better than men at remembering landmarks, an important skill in finding
one’s way around a new area.
14 It is ludicrous to claim that Wikipedia, the so-called ‘encyclopaedia’ of the Internet, is
a reliable source of knowledge in the same way that encyclopaedias are. Unlike entries
in an encyclopaedia, the entries in Wikipedia can be written by anyone, regardless of
whether the author has any expertise in the subject.
15 Road traffic continues to increase. Building new roads or widening existing roads
simply encourages more traffic. Motorists will change their habits only if there
is some financial disincentive to using the car. The solution to traffic congestion is to
introduce charges for road use.
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