The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a journal on environmental issues.

　　The brief passage:

　　"Over the past year, the Crust Copper Company (CCC) has purchased over 10,000 square miles of land in the tropical nation of West Fredonia. Mining copper on this land will inevitably result in pollution and, since West Fredonia is the home of several endangered animal species, in environmental disaster. But such disasters can be prevented if consumers simply refuse to purchase products that are made with CCC's copper unless the company abandons its mining plans."

　　The instructions:

　　Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstatedassumptions 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.

　　究竟怎么破解Argument任务?

　　我们以三个assumption点为例(当然题目中包含的assumption不仅3个)

　　讲一个常见的逻辑疑点：范畴问题。

　　范畴一：

　　如果CCC是(不只一家)在West Fredonia开采铜的公司之一呢?

　　The author assumes that CCC is the only company that mines copper in the country of West Fredonia. However, this is not a safe assumption. There may be other mining companies whose mining activities also cause pollution and loss of habitat of endangered animal species. Thus, actions in response to CCC’s mining activities may not result in the prevention of those environmental disasters.

　　范畴二：

　　如果铜是CCC在West Fredonia开采的(不只一种)金属之一呢?

　　The author’s another assumption is that CCC mines only copper. Although the company’s name indicates that the company does the copper business, it may mine not only copper but also a number of other metals, and mining other metals may, just as mining coppers causes pollution and environmental disasters, also produce pollutants, devastate West Fredonia’s land, and threaten the life of endangered animal species. Therefore, as the author assumes that CCC mines only copper, the company’s other mining activities and the likely consequent pollution and environmental disasters are overlooked.

　　范畴三：

　　如果开采铜是CCC在West Fredonia的(不只一个)生产活动之一呢?

　　At this point, it is fair to think that CCC’s business is quite extensive, ranging from mining to other industrial activities. If it is the case, the author obviously fails to consider the possible environmental impact those other industrial activities may have since he or she seems to think, in a manner of assumption, that CCC’s business is limited to copper mining. In other words, hardly can the measure in response to CCC’s copper mining effectively eliminate the company’s damage to the environment.

　　看来这个题，真的就是和范畴问题杠上了。仅范畴问题，我们就能找到三个逻辑疑点。范畴问题，是Argument任务的常见伎俩，希望大家能够通过三个assumption的分析，找到门路。

　　当然，大家会疑问具体怎么针对assumption这种指令展开分析性写作?大家还会疑问，怎么感觉第二和第三个段落的措辞和个段落的措辞风格/方式，甚至行文思路有不太不一样呢?

　　确实如此，GRE的Argument任务并不是一个简单的系统，我们会在长期的不断推送和更新中不断破解Argument任务写作的三个维度：

　　* 破解(和梳理)逻辑疑点;

　　* 回应(和满足)指令要求;

　　* 如何既是分析，又是写作。