▶ Your Answer :
In this passage, the author suggests that Prunty County ought to replace their road improvement project with Butler County’s one in order to decrease the rate of accident on Prunty’s highway instead of lowering speed limit. To support his claim, the author mentioned unchanged number of accidents on Prunty’s highway and reports of the highway patrols. Also, the author states that Butler’s project works so efficiently that their accident rate 25 percent decreased than the rate of their five years ago. However, in order to evaluate the argument, the author should answer the following questions.
First, the author should states the volume of traffic of both Prunty and Butler. Although the author mentioned Butler’s project bring effective result in decreasing accident rate, this argument cannot be evaluated without statement on the volume of traffic. Because higher traffic volume tends to cause high probability of car accident, the traffic volume of two counties can affect to the number of accidents on their highway. If Prunty’s traffic volume was much higher than Butler’s one, the result on the passage should be nullified. Thus, to evaluate the argument, the author should mention on the traffic volume of Prunty and Butler County.
Second, it is should be proven whether the status of Prunty’s highway could be improved by undertaking Butler’s road improvement project. The author stated that increasing lane width, resurfacing rough highway and improving visibility at dangerous intersection would decrease Prunty’s accident rate. However, if status of Prunty’s road is good enough so Butler’s projects are not needed, application of Butler’s project might not works well. Therefore, the status of Pruty’s highway should be mentioned to evaluate the argument’s effectiveness.
In sum, aforementioned two evidences, the traffic volume of two counties and status of Prunty’s highway are should be stated in order to evaluate the argument. Unless two evidences support the author’s suggestion, the argument might be weakened. |