Critical Thinking Skills - Developing Effective Analysis and Argument(2)

Activity: Implicit assumptions used as reasons
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People used plants as a method of curing illness for
Read the followlnq - passaqes. In each case, I P ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .
centuries before the advent of modern medicines. The
( 1) the con1 elusion
same plants are often used by the pharmaceutical
(. 2) the imp licit assuml stions used
industry as the basis for the medicines we use even
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today. Medicines are now expensive to produce a;ld
J purchase. It would be better if we returned to
traditional methods, using leaves and roots of plants
rather than mass-produced pharmaceuticals.
It has long been the hope of many people that robots
would revolutionise mundane chores and hard labour
such as construction work and housework. The first
humanoid robot was designed by Leonardo da Vinci
as long ago as 1495. We have gone for hundreds of
years with little progress in gaining humanoid robots
to assist around the house and construction site.
Labour-saving robots are just a dream. As there has
been so little advance on humanoid robots assisting
with housework and construction, it will probably
never be achieved.
We should continue to improve sanitation and diet in
order to further increase our life expectancy. People in
the past had much shorter life expectancies than
today. The life expectancy of pre-industrialised ,
societies tended to be an average of 30 years. Today,
people in developed countries can expect to live to
over 70 years. Men, in particular, live much longer
now.
Most new catering businesses collapse within the first
year. Entrepreneurs tend to underestimate how long it
takes to establish a client base. They run out of
operating funds before they have a chance to
establish themselves in the market. Many new
restaurant owners give clients over-generous portions,
often in a misguided attempt to lure them back to the
restaurant. Therefore, in order to keep their businesses
afloat, new restaurant owners should delay installing
new kitchens until the restaurant is established.
Many people in the world are under-nourished or do
The Electoral Commission found that intimidation was not get enough to eat. More should be done to
used to influence how some voters used their postal reduce the world's population so that food supplies
vote in the local elections. We should call an end to can go round.
postal voting. This will ensure a return to fair
elections.
-- c-"7-
..*---- m.v.,-
~nswersisee pp. mn.
7
90 Critical Thinking Skills O Stella Cottrell (2005), Critical Thinking Skills,
Palgrave Macmillan Ltd