刘文勇GRE写作Argument题库 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.

五问：

（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”是结论，其余部分是事实，值得反驳吗？

（2）本题是一个经过调查研究得出结论的题目。首先我们应该关注：样本的数量是否够大？（对于整个广告行业来说 300人太少了吧。）样本与最终得出的结论之间的关系如何？是否具备代表性？如果这 300人正好是在激励员工加班的公司工作呢？那就不具备代表性了。原文中调查的样本是以广告业作为对象的，而结论却说所有的商业模式都应该如此，这种类比合适吗？广告业是否具有不同于其他商业模式的特质？而这些特质是否会影响这些广告经理的睡眠时长？例如：因为广告方案经常要做很多个，客户又比较着急，广告经理需要加班才能赶在期限前完成，导致睡眠时间减少。另外，平均值能在任何情况下都代表个体值吗？

（3）更高的利润与更快的增长这两个结果真的是由更少的睡眠带来的吗？真的“只是”由于更少的睡眠导致的吗？他们之间的因果关系是否完整且唯一？是否会受到其他因素的影响？你能具体地罗列一两个因素吗？例如：员工能力更强，经营策略更好，与更多知名品牌合作。或者因果关系倒置？正是由于公司增长速度快，工作量增加，才导致广告经理睡眠减少。

（4）即便优秀的管理者需要的睡眠时间的确少于六小时，我们是否就能简单地说，少于六小时的睡眠时间就一定能够造就一个优秀的管理者？二者之间是简单的对等关系吗？还是包含与被包含的关系？

（5）即便睡眠时间少的人真的适合担任管理职务，那是否就能得出结论说只有这种人适合担任管理职务？睡眠超过六小时但是工作效率更高的人就不该招聘吗？