名词

Argument/conclusion/forecast/prediction/expectation/editorial/reasoning/inference

Statistics/data/study/survey/information/evidence

Flaw/rejoinder/obstacle/

形容词

Questionable/misleading/hasty/presumptuous/problematic/unacceptable/fallacious/biased/unreliable/defective/in question/ill-founded/unsupported/unconvincing/gratuitous/dubious

Critical/egregious/

Alleged/

(充分)Conclusive as to..(必要)

动词

Recommend/assume/conclude/demonstrate/indicate/address/foretell/forecast/substantiate/account forr/

Fail/ignore/overlook

Nullify/a

Justify/

Rely on/ rest on/ on the basis of/

副词

Entirely/extremely/dramatically/quite

Virtually/

Necessarily/safely/obviously

Unreasonably/unjustifiably/

By no means

连接信号词

提出weaken的evidence: Just as likely/for instance/ It is entirely possible that/may/might/perhaps..or perhaps/yet another possibility is that…./…might have….;..might have…; or …might hve…/ Suppose for the moment that…

In short/

For this reason/If so../ as a result

In the absense of/ without such evidence/If, on the other hand, ….would….

It is unfair to assume

Even if it is granted that…, the argument ignores the possibility that…

Even if we grant the preceding assumption…

开头

(1)提出方法与建议的 In this editorial, the author argues for… in order to….

反对某方法 In this memorandum, …recommends against.

从原因到结果的 In this article (..), the author concludes that…

从结果推原因的 In this article(….), the author attributes.. to …

(2) According to the author, the conclusion is based on a study revealing that…..

(3)Moreover, in support of this conclusion, the author maintains/reasons that…

(4)Author’s line of reasoning is flawed for the following reasons.

结尾

(1)To sum up, the author’s belief that…. is ill-founded.

(2)To buttress the argument, the author would have to provide evidence for the claim that….

(3)  Furthermore, it would be necessary to show that….

正文topic sentence

First, and foremost,

Second,

Finally

七宗罪

Doubtable survey/study

样本容量不足

The study cited in the editorial may be defective because the total number of…was not specified. Had the author indicated that…., the fact that…would greatly support author’s reasoning. Conversely, the conclusion would be much weaker.

Had the author indicated that…., the argument would be more convincing.

时间太短，对以后趋势预测不具代表性

Data gathered from a three-month period is insufficient to set up an conclusive conclusion for a year period. Perhaps, the three-month period chosen is idiosyncratic and not representative of entire year’s….

A difference of only 3 percent during one particular week can easily be accounted for by other factors, such as…and …., or by problems with reporting or sampling.

样本不是random

The respondents’ views are not necessarily representative of the views of …in general. If it turns out, for example, that…only those….respond to the survey,   the  conclusion would be dramatically weakened. Without information regarding the way in which …..were selected, it is unconvincing to infer that….

The author assumes that because only…took part in the …, these….are unrepresentative of the entire boy. This assumption is unwarranted. If it turns out, for example that…are randomly selected from the entire body, their views sould reflect the views of the entire body.

调查怎么做的

Without knowing how the survey was conducted, it is impossible to assess the credibility of the study.

The author unjustifiably relies on the studies that….The author does not provide evidence to confirm the reliability of the studies. Moreover, while the phrase “studies suggest” may appear to lend credibility to these claims, the phrase is vague enough to actually render the claims worthless, in the absense of any information about…

Gratuitous assumption

The author’s forecast of…rests on the gratuitous assumption that….There is, however, no guarantee that this is the case. Nor does the author cite any evidence to support this assumption. Just as likely(提出weaken的evidence). Lacking this assumption, the expectation of… is quite unacceptable.

The author assumes that….This underlying assumption operative in this inference is never supported with any data or projections.

It is unfair to assume/presuppose that….

This assumption is unwarranted.

Another assumption must be made before we can conclude that….We can not safely assume that because..

The author reaches this conclusion on the basis of

Causal oversimplification

1.fact 会导致weaken结论的其他结果

The assumption fails to take into account(相反的结果)….that could stem from(文中的evidence)…

Due to…would….The fact that ….suggests that…..

2.其他文中未提到的因素会导致相反的结果

The increase of …is not the same as the increase of.., for… depends more on such factors as…

The author assumes that …will necessarily result in…. While this is a reasonable assumption, it is by no means a certainty. For example,..would certainly nullify this expectation.

The author assumes that…will… All other factors remaining unchanged, this would be the case. If, on the other hand,….would..

The author provides no evidence that the revenue-enhancing effect of…will exceed the revenue-decreasing effect of… Without such evidence, the argument is unconvincing.

3.缺乏足够证据下的递近推理

The author assumes that ….will result in its taking steps to do something to the problem-in this case, to…

This raises several questions the author fails to address.

The author assumes that ….portends… This assumption may be true in some cases. However, it is not necessarily to hold true in any case. For example,.. would certainly nullify this expectation.

This assumption is questionable since the mere fact that … is no guarantee that…

4.未给出充分的推理,因果间联系不紧密

The author cites the fact that….as evidence that….One obvious rejoinder to this line of reasoning is that…

In any case, the author has failed to demonstrate a logical connection between…and…Without this connection, the conclusion reached by the author that…is unacceptable.

The author assumes that ….bear some relation to ….No evidence, however, is offered to prove a logical connection between ..and…. Lacking evidence that links…to…, it is presumptuous to suggest that…was in some way responsible for….

The mere fact that…, by itself, ensure that…

In short, ….by itself is not conclusive as to whether…actually…

Until evidence has been provided to show that this is (not) the case, the ….is unacceptable.

5.有其他更有效的方法(常用于文中出现must类似字眼时)

In short, this conclusion must be supported with a thorough cost-benefit analysis of….versus other possible cost-cutting and/or profit-enhancing strategies.

By concluding that…must.., the author assumes that these are the only solutions to the problem. However, it is possible that other factors-such as..-contribute to the problem. If so, …..would not solve the problem.

By concluding that…must…, the author assumes that the only way to …is through…. However, many other means of… are available. As we know,….is an effective means of…. ., for instance. In short, this conclusion can be reached only with a thorough cost-benefit analysis of….versus other possible cost-cutting and/or profit-enhancing strategies.

6.作者提出的方法可能会有负面影响

7.问题原因判断错误，提出的解决办法无效

Asserting that…, the author assumes that…causes…. However, …could be a function of other factors.

8.可能有其他原因,需要排除以确定真正原因

It is entirely possible that ….Unless the author can rule out other factors relevant to….,this argument commits the fallacy of assuming that just because one event()follows another(), the second event has been caused by the first.

The author asserts that…results from… Unfortunately, the only evidence offered to support this claim is that ….before…. The argument obviously suffers from a classic logical fallacy of“after this, therefore because of this” Moreover, many other relevant factors that might have contributed to….are ignored. For instance, it is entirely possible that….Consequently, this reasoning is dubious unless other possible causal explanations have been considered and rejected with more information.

To establish his relationship, other factors that could bring about result must be considered and eliminated.
This assumption is qustionable because it overlooks a number of other factors that might have contributed to….. For example, …might have….; it might have…; or it might have…. These are just a few of the factors that could help explain… Because the author fails to eliminate these possiblities, the assumption in question need not be accepted.

The argument assumes that …results from….However, there are several reasons why this might not be true. For example,… could have been made…..Or…could be attributed to…

This argument is a classic instance of “after this, therefore because of this”reasoning. The mere fact that…preceded…isinsufficient to conclude that it was the cause of these event. Many other factors could bring about these same results. For example..., ..may have… In addition,..may have..

For reasons other than….

The evidence revealed in the research establishes only a positive correlation between..and… ; it does not establish a causal connection between them. Other factors, such as…., could be responsible for…

The only evidence offered to support this claim is that …occurred before… This evidence is insufficient to establish the claim in question. A chronological relationship is only one of the indicators of a causal relationship between two events.

The author assumes that the only relevant difference between ….and… is…. However, other relevant differences between …and .. might account for…..

While temporal precedence is one of the conditions required to establish a causal relationship between two events, by itself it is not a sufficient condition. Consequently, it is possible that the ..was unrelated to ….

9．利润分析/贸易顺逆差时常有的问题

The argument is based on an oversimplified analysis of .. problem. The author’s argument relies on the assumption that…will remain constant.

…will not yield…unless ….is sufficient to overcome…

The author has focused only on negative effects… A more detailed analysis of the situation might reveal that the positive benefits far outweigh the problems on which the author focuses. Lacking a more comprehensive analysis of…, it is presumptuous on the part of author to conclude that…

All things are equal

时间改变导致某些影响因素改变,从而影响结论

The argument ignores the possibility that the trend may change within in the next decade…might turn to..This will lead to…

The argument assumes that relative conditions will remain unchanged over the next twenty years. However, the author overlooks that…may fluctuate/trend may change greatly over a long time period. This may affect…, which in turn may lead to…

Based on a false analogy

从一个领域到另一个,从一个产品到一个

It is highly doubtful that the fact drawn from….are applicable to…Differences between the two industries clearly outweigh the similarities, thus making the analogy highly less than valid. For example, problems of ….all affect…but are virtually absent in.

The third assumption is that(结论)….will be analogous to…But this might not be the case.

The argument rests on the assumption that a promotional strategy that works for one company will work for another. However,….and… may not be sufficiently similar to warrant this assumption.

The author fails to take into account possible differences between …and …. That are relevant to …..

The major problem with the argument is that the stated similarities between…and… are in sufficient to support the conclusion that Company A will suffer a fate similar to Company B’s.

The author assumes that …and …are sufficiently similar to warrant a conclusion based on an analogy between them.

Differences between… and.. could nullify this result. Lacing detailed information about…., it is difficult to access the author’s conclusion.

是否适用于所有(常用于argument中出现all类似的字眼时)

It is questionable whether…..could support all types of…..For example, the needs of… would not be met by……..For this reason, it is unlikely that…..

The argument makes a hasty generalization about the types of….It accords with common sense that ….However, it is unfair to assume that…similarly in other…

The author makes a hasty generalization/analogy based on the assumption that what is true of ..will likewise be true of …But there are all kinds of vital differences between ..and…  For example, .., which affecting… to a large extent. Consequently, lacking detailed information, we cannot safely assume that because…, any or other…will similarly…

However, it might turn out that some….. Consequently, …some might find it more difficult, if not impossible, to…

It might not be necessary for all.. to follow this practice.

数据应用不当

绝对相对

The argument ignores the absolute amount of.. Although …a smaller percentage of…, they might actually..more..in terms of absolute amount.

基数和增长数

The author never addresses the….difference between…and …Suppose there are more… than… now, the total base of.. will be bigger than that of.. if both of them grow at the same rate.

..may have been available for several more years than…; and in the years when both…were available, ….might have actually been…more than…(基数大不代表更好,而可能是因为时间更长)

其他

The author assumes that the (poll) indicates that…But the poll does not even address the issue of…; it informs us mainly that….A more reliable indicator of…would be (a comparison of… with…)

推理公正性(有目的的misleading)

The argument at hand might have been intentionally oversimplified for the specific purpose of …..,and thereby turning them for/agains…Arguments that bypass relevant, complex reasoning in favor of stirring up emotions do nothing to establish their conclusions; they are also unfair to..involved.

提出的方案的不具有可行性

Even if.., we still do not know whether or not ….can afford to apply….If …does not have sufficient fund,….