GRE高頻作文及參考范文

　　自新GRE作文題庫改革以來，目前仍然沒有遍歷所有題庫，但是某些題目確實考試中的高頻文章，如果小伙伴們在準備作文時無從下手，不妨從高頻開始寫起，我們GRE高頻作文聯播將定期為大家提供高頻作文及其范文。

　　15. The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.

　　Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term butter to refer to either butter or margarine.

　　Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

　　拿到題目，要找這個段落的結論是什么。應該是第二句：This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. 在這個段落中說到兩個原因來證明結論：第一，only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. 第二，many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. 其實這兩個原因都不能充分地證明這個結論。

　　首先，我們可以先看看第一個原因，only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. 2%沒有抱怨就一定代表100人中98人是樂于接受人造黃油嗎?不一定，在100人中98人沒有抱怨可能是因為他們自身的原因，覺得抱怨比較麻煩或者趕時間吃完就走了或者吃完不滿意下次再也不來了，都有可能導致沒有接受到所有的抱怨。

　　其次，第二個原因是，many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. 這里說many, 很顯然，vague data, 一些人沒有播報，但到底是多少呢?占服務生總量的百分比是多少?而且是不是就某個連鎖店里的一些服務生這么說的呢?所以他們多少人、有沒有代表性都是令人質疑的。并且后邊還有一個report,就算前邊的many很多人也很有代表性，但是他們不一定會report實情，因為他們是飯店的服務生，很有可能會隱藏有抱怨的事實，沒說真話。

　　再次，either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term butter to refer to either butter or margarine.注意這里面出現的either、or字眼，它們是false dilemma非常標志性字眼，簡稱假兩難?？赡芫退阌斜г挂膊皇莈ither、or里面的任何原因導致的，有可能是：他們是沖著這的就餐環境來的，上什么都無所謂;或者他們覺著這的dish price比較低;或者非常的tasty等等優點讓他們不再計較是人造黃油還是天然黃油。

　　參考范文：

　　The above argument concludes that when Happy Pancake House replaced butter with margarine in their restaurants in the Southwest, there was no effect on their customers. To support this claim, they point the fact that only 2 percent of customers have complained about the change and that many servers say customers do not complain when given margarine instead of butter. They reason that customers generally fail to distinguish margarine from butter or use the term butter to refer to both. However, their conclusions do not follow from the evidence presented.

　　The author claims that only 2 percent of customers complained, and that this indicates 98 out of 100 people are satisfied. First of all, the statistic itself is suspect. Where does the 2 percent come from? Perhaps they estimated their total number of monthly customers based on sales figures and then divided their number of monthly complaints by that number, but the reader can only guess. What if customers tend to only complain the second time an error is committed? Depending on how the statistic was calculated, this could mean that it only represents half the extent of customer dissatisfaction.

　　Second of all, even assuming the statistic is accurate, their assumption that 98 out of 100 people must then be happy does not logically follow. Some customers may not voice their dissatisfactionperhaps the companys protocol for filing complaints is too inconvenient for most customers to bother with, or perhaps dissatisfied customers stop dining at the restaurant altogether. Hence there are many possible scenarios in which complaint statistics do not accurately reflect customer dissatisfaction. The author could strengthen their argument by indicating how they arrived at the 2 percent statistic and why it is a valid measure of overall customer satisfaction.

　　The second piece of data used in the authors argument is even worse. Dispensing with numbers altogether, they put forward a weakly worded claim that many servers reported a number of customers do not complain when given margarine after asking for butter. The errors here are essentially the same as those in the preceding discussion, just more grievous. To begin with, how many data points were used? What constitutes many servers? The sample size was likely too small to generate a valid statistic, so instead we are left with this nebulous phrasing. Perhaps only a handful of servers in a couple of restaurants reported this; we cannot know. Maybe they only looked for feedback in poorly performing restaurants where customer expectations were already low; again, we cannot know.

　　Furthermore, even if they were able to get a wide sample of restaurants and customers, it is possible that customers are reluctant to complain directly to servers because of the awkwardness it might cause. It also might be the case that butter and margarine are relatively unimportant to customers in comparison to the overall quality of their meal. We cannot assume their silence betokens a failure to distinguish butter from margarine, or that they must use the word butter to refer to both spreads. Without some type of a control, this piece of data is essentially meaningless.

　　Customer complaints can be a useful form of feedback, but the author fails to use them reasonably in their argument. Eliminating butter from their restaurants may very well be an effective long-term business strategy for Happy Pancake House. However, the pieces of data provided are not persuasive enough to advise that course of action.

　　自新GRE作文題庫改革以來，目前仍然沒有遍歷所有題庫，但是某些題目確實考試中的高頻文章，如果小伙伴們在準備作文時無從下手，不妨從高頻開始寫起，我們GRE高頻作文聯播將定期為大家提供高頻作文及其范文。

　　15. The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.

　　Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term butter to refer to either butter or margarine.

　　Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

　　拿到題目，要找這個段落的結論是什么。應該是第二句：This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. 在這個段落中說到兩個原因來證明結論：第一，only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. 第二，many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. 其實這兩個原因都不能充分地證明這個結論。

　　首先，我們可以先看看第一個原因，only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. 2%沒有抱怨就一定代表100人中98人是樂于接受人造黃油嗎?不一定，在100人中98人沒有抱怨可能是因為他們自身的原因，覺得抱怨比較麻煩或者趕時間吃完就走了或者吃完不滿意下次再也不來了，都有可能導致沒有接受到所有的抱怨。

　　其次，第二個原因是，many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. 這里說many, 很顯然，vague data, 一些人沒有播報，但到底是多少呢?占服務生總量的百分比是多少?而且是不是就某個連鎖店里的一些服務生這么說的呢?所以他們多少人、有沒有代表性都是令人質疑的。并且后邊還有一個report,就算前邊的many很多人也很有代表性，但是他們不一定會report實情，因為他們是飯店的服務生，很有可能會隱藏有抱怨的事實，沒說真話。

　　再次，either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term butter to refer to either butter or margarine.注意這里面出現的either、or字眼，它們是false dilemma非常標志性字眼，簡稱假兩難?？赡芫退阌斜г挂膊皇莈ither、or里面的任何原因導致的，有可能是：他們是沖著這的就餐環境來的，上什么都無所謂;或者他們覺著這的dish price比較低;或者非常的tasty等等優點讓他們不再計較是人造黃油還是天然黃油。

　　參考范文：

　　The above argument concludes that when Happy Pancake House replaced butter with margarine in their restaurants in the Southwest, there was no effect on their customers. To support this claim, they point the fact that only 2 percent of customers have complained about the change and that many servers say customers do not complain when given margarine instead of butter. They reason that customers generally fail to distinguish margarine from butter or use the term butter to refer to both. However, their conclusions do not follow from the evidence presented.

　　The author claims that only 2 percent of customers complained, and that this indicates 98 out of 100 people are satisfied. First of all, the statistic itself is suspect. Where does the 2 percent come from? Perhaps they estimated their total number of monthly customers based on sales figures and then divided their number of monthly complaints by that number, but the reader can only guess. What if customers tend to only complain the second time an error is committed? Depending on how the statistic was calculated, this could mean that it only represents half the extent of customer dissatisfaction.

　　Second of all, even assuming the statistic is accurate, their assumption that 98 out of 100 people must then be happy does not logically follow. Some customers may not voice their dissatisfactionperhaps the companys protocol for filing complaints is too inconvenient for most customers to bother with, or perhaps dissatisfied customers stop dining at the restaurant altogether. Hence there are many possible scenarios in which complaint statistics do not accurately reflect customer dissatisfaction. The author could strengthen their argument by indicating how they arrived at the 2 percent statistic and why it is a valid measure of overall customer satisfaction.

　　The second piece of data used in the authors argument is even worse. Dispensing with numbers altogether, they put forward a weakly worded claim that many servers reported a number of customers do not complain when given margarine after asking for butter. The errors here are essentially the same as those in the preceding discussion, just more grievous. To begin with, how many data points were used? What constitutes many servers? The sample size was likely too small to generate a valid statistic, so instead we are left with this nebulous phrasing. Perhaps only a handful of servers in a couple of restaurants reported this; we cannot know. Maybe they only looked for feedback in poorly performing restaurants where customer expectations were already low; again, we cannot know.

　　Furthermore, even if they were able to get a wide sample of restaurants and customers, it is possible that customers are reluctant to complain directly to servers because of the awkwardness it might cause. It also might be the case that butter and margarine are relatively unimportant to customers in comparison to the overall quality of their meal. We cannot assume their silence betokens a failure to distinguish butter from margarine, or that they must use the word butter to refer to both spreads. Without some type of a control, this piece of data is essentially meaningless.

　　Customer complaints can be a useful form of feedback, but the author fails to use them reasonably in their argument. Eliminating butter from their restaurants may very well be an effective long-term business strategy for Happy Pancake House. However, the pieces of data provided are not persuasive enough to advise that course of action.