4月gre考试：gre argument题库及译文详解（2）
231The following appeared in the annual report of a chain of stores that sell supplies for do-it-yourself home improvements.
"Current reports indicate that sales of new homes nationwide declined by 9 percent during the past year, while sales of existing homes increased by 16 percent. Thus we can expect that the percentage of homeowners who will be making repairs or improvements to their homes will also increase. In addition, people who buy existing homes will have more money left over after the purchase to spend on home improvements. Finally, people who buy existing homes are more likely to make improvements themselves, as opposed to paying someone else. These factors combined indicate we can expect an increasing demand for products in all our stores nationwide, thus increasing our profits in the coming year."
232The following appeared in an environmental newsletter published in Tria Island.
"The marine sanctuary on Tria Island was established to protect certain marine mammals. Its regulations ban dumping and offshore oil drilling within 20 miles of Tria, but fishing is not banned. Currently many fish populations in Tria's waters are declining, a situation blamed on pollution. In contrast, the marine sanctuary on Omni Island has regulations that ban dumping, offshore oil drilling, and fishing within 10 miles of Omni and Omni reports no significant decline in its fish populations. Clearly, the decline in fish populations in Tria's waters is the result of overfishing, not pollution. Therefore, the best way to restore Tria's fish populations and to protect all of Tria's marine wildlife is to abandon our regulations and adopt those of Omni."
233The following appeared in an editorial in the local newspaper of Workville.
"Workers should be allowed to reduce their workload from 40 to 25 or even 20 hours per week because it is clear that people who work part-time instead of full-time have better health and improved morale. One store in Workville, which began allowing its employees to work part-time last year, reports that fewer days of sick leave were taken last year than in previous years. In contrast, the factory in Workville, which does not allow any of its employees to work part-time, had a slight increase in the number of days of sick leave taken last year. In addition, a recent survey reports that most of the store employees stated that they are satisfied with their jobs, while many of the factory employees stated that they are dissatisfied with their jobs."
234The following is a memo from the principal of Academia High School.
"Academia High School should abolish its after-school performing-arts programs and replace them with computer-technology programs. When nearby Techno High School did so last year, total enrollment in all of its after-school activities remained about the same. Moreover, on entering college, many Techno students chose a major directly related to their after-school activities. On the other hand, last year only 10 percent of Academia's graduating seniors chose performing arts as their major field of study in their first year of college, clearly indicating that most students do not have a strong interest in the performing arts."
235The following was taken from a guide for aspiring writers.
"New writers usually cannot convince large, prestigious publishers that their work is marketable, so they must first publish with smaller, less well-known presses to establish a sales record. But the editors of Mystery Writers Magazine have good news for aspiring writers: the number of mystery novels published in the last two years has grown significantly, and more people read mysteries than any other type of novel. In addition, almost half of the mystery novels published last year were written by first-time novel writers. Since there is apparently an expanding market for mystery novels, all publishers will want to increase the number of mystery novels they publish. Therefore, new writers should write mystery novels to increase their chances for first-time publication with a larger, prestigious company."
236The following is a memorandum from the business manager of WLSS television station.
"Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increasingly more time to covering national news and less time to covering weather and local news. During the same time period, most of the complaints we received from viewers were concerned with the station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition, several local businesses that used to run advertisements during our late-night news program have just cancelled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should expand the coverage of weather and local news on all our news programs."
237The following is part of a letter from the Brookfree School Board.
"As part of our new educational reform program, we identified ten schools most in need of immediate improvement. An advisory committee is now recommending that we hire consultants to study further the schools' problems and to propose a plan of action. Only two years ago, however, another group of consultants determined that several schools in our district had problems because their principals were inexperienced. Thus, if we want to see immediate improvement in our schools and save the district the money it would spend on hiring more consultants, we should replace all the principals in the ten worst schools with ten of our most experienced principals in the district."
238The following appeared in an editorial in the Mason City newspaper.
"At present, Mason City residents seldom use the nearby Mason River for any kind of recreational activity, even though surveys of the region's residents consistently rank water sports (swimming, fishing, and boating) as a favorite form of recreation. Since there have been complaints about the quality of the water in the river, residents must be avoiding the river because they think that it is not clean enough. But that situation is about to change: the agency responsible for rivers in our region has announced plans to clean up Mason River. Therefore, recreational use of the river is likely to increase, so the Mason City council will need to increase its budget for improvements to the publicly owned lands along the Mason River."
239The following report appeared in a memo from the vice president of the Southside Transportation Authority.
"We should abandon our current five-year plan to purchase additional buses to serve the campus of Southside University, because students there are unlikely to use them. Consider the results of the recent campaign sponsored by the Environmental Club at Southside University: in a program on the campus radio station, the club asked students to call in and pledge that they would commute to school by bus instead of by automobile at least one day per week. Only ten percent of the students called in and pledged. In view of the campaign's lack of success, we can assume that the bus service we currently offer will continue to be sufficient to serve the university."
240The following appeared in the editorial section of an educational publication.
"One study at Lee University found that first-semester grades of teenage students who had always attended public, tax-supported schools were slightly lower than the grades of students who had received some home schooling instruction by parents at home, although the grade differences disappeared in the second semester. These results suggest that home schooling is the best way to educate teenage children. Therefore, instead of spending more money on public education, the government should provide financial incentives so that home schooling is an option for more parents. After all, children schooled at home receive more attention, since they are taught by the best possible teacher: a parent who has a high stake in educating them well."
241The following appeared in a report of the Committee on Faculty Promotions and Salaries at Elm City University.
"During her 17 years as a professor of botany, Professor Thomas has proved herself to be well worth her annual salary of $50,000. Her classes are among the largest at the university, demonstrating her popularity among students. Moreover, the money she has brought to the university in research grants has exceeded her salary in each of the last two years. Therefore, in consideration of Professor Thomas' demonstrated teaching and research abilities, we recommend that she receive a $10,000 raise and a promotion to Department Chairperson; without such a raise and promotion, we fear that Professor Thomas will leave Elm City University for another college."
242The following appeared in a newsletter distributed at a recent political rally.
"Over the past year, the Consolidated Copper Company (CCC) has purchased over one million square miles of land in the tropical nation of West Fredonia. Mining copper on this land will inevitably result in pollution and environmental disaster, since West Fredonia is home to several endangered animal species. But such disaster can be prevented if consumers simply refuse to purchase products that are made with CCC's copper until the company abandons its mining plans."
231当前的报告指出全国的新住宅销量在去年下降了9%，而旧房销量增加了16%。因此我们可以预见将会修缮或改造其房屋的业主比例也会增加。而且，那些买旧房的人在购房后将会有更多的富余金钱用于房屋改造。最后，买旧房的人更可能自己进行改造，而不是雇人来做。这些因素说明我们可以预计我们全国的商店产品需求将会增加，因而我们来年的利润也会上升。
232 Tria岛的海洋生物禁猎区是用来保护某些海洋哺乳动物的。它禁止在Tria20英里以内倾倒废物和近海采油，但捕鱼并不禁止。当前Tria水域的很多种鱼类数量都在下降，这种现象被认为是污染造成的。相比之下，Omni岛的海洋生物禁猎区禁止倾倒废物、近海采油和在Omni10英里以内捕鱼，Omni没有上报任何鱼类数量的显著下降。显然，Tria水域鱼类数量的下降是过度捕鱼而不是污染造成的。因此，回复Tria鱼类数量和保护Tria所有海洋野生动物的最好办法就是废止我们的规定而采用Omni的规定。
233应该允许工人把他们的工作量从每周40小时减少至25甚至20小时，因为显然那些部分时间工作而不是全时工作的人更加健康，精神更好。Workville的一个商店去年开始允许员工部分时间工作，它报告说去年的病假数量比前些年减少。相比之下，Workville的工厂不允许员工部分时间工作，去年它的病假数量有少量上升。而且，最近的一次调查报告说该商店多数雇员声称他们对于自己的工作满意，而很多工厂的员工声称对于自己的工作不满意。
234 Academia高中应该废止其课外表演艺术课程而应该以计算机科技课程取而代之。当附近的Techno高中去年采取了这种变化之后，其所有课外活动的参加数量基本没变。而且，很多Techno的学生在走进大学的时候选择了与他们所参加的课外活动直接相关的专业。另一方面，去年Academia的毕业生中只有10%的人选择表演艺术作为他们大学第一年的专业，这显然表明多数学生对于表演艺术并没有很强烈的兴趣。
235新作家往往无法使大型有威望的出版商相信他们的作品是有市场的，因此他们必须首先找一些较小的、知名度不那么高的出版社出版作品来建立自己的销售记录。但Mystery Writers Magazine的编辑为有抱负的作家带来了好消息：过去两年中神秘小说的出版数量显著增长，读这类小说的读者多于其他任何类型小说的人。而且，去年出版的神秘小说中差不多有一半是由第一次写小说的作家写的。由于神秘小说显然存在正在扩展的市场，所有出版商将会增加他们出版的神秘小说的数量。因此，新作家应该创作神秘小说来增加他们的处女作被大型有威望出版社出版的机会。
236去年，我们的深夜新闻节目投入了更多的时间播放全国新闻，较少的时间播放天气预报和地方新闻。在同一时期，我们从观众那里获得的投诉大部分是关于电视台对于天气和地方新闻的播放的。而且，若干曾经在我们深夜新闻节目播放广告的地方企业刚刚取消了和我们的广告契约。因此，为吸引更多的电视观众观看我们的新闻节目并避免失去未来的广告收入，我们应该在我们所有的新闻节目中增加天气和地方新闻的播报。
237作为我们新的教育改革计划的一部分，我们确定了10所最急需改善的学校。一个顾问委员会现在建议我们雇佣顾问来进一步研究学校的问题并设立行动方案。然而仅仅在两年以前，另一组顾问认为我们区的若干学校因为他们的校长没有经验而存在问题。因此，如果我们想要看到我们学校的立即改善并节省本地区用于雇佣更多顾问的花费的话，我们应该撤销这10所最差学校的校长并让本地区最有经验的校长来代替他们。
238 当前，Mason市很少利用附近的Mason河来进行娱乐活动，尽管对该地区居民的几次调查一直指出他们把水上运动(游泳、垂钓和划船)作为他们最喜欢的娱乐形式。由于曾经存在对于这条河水质的投诉，居民一定是因为他们认为河水不够干净才不在这里活动。但这种情况就会改变了：我们地区负责河流管理的部门公布了澄清Mason河的计划。因此，河流的娱乐用途很可能将会增加，因而Mason市的市委有必要增加用于改善Mason河沿岸公共土地的预算。
239 我们应该废止当前为服务Southside大学而购买更多巴士的五年计划，因为学生不太可能用到它们。请想一想Southside大学的环保俱乐部最近组织的一次活动的结果：在一次校园广播节目中，他们呼吁学生保证每周至少有一天坐公交车上学而不是坐私家车。只有10%的学生做了保证。鉴于这次活动没有获得成功，我们可以认为现在提供的公交服务将足以满足大学的需求。
240一次在Lee大学进行的研究发现，那些一直参加由税收支持的公立学校的青少年学生的第一学期成绩比那些曾接受过家长在家中进行的教育的学生低一些，尽管这种分数的差异在第二学期就消失了。这些结果说明，家教是教育青少年的最好方式。因此，政府不应该在公共教育上花更多的钱，而应该提供经济上的激励使家教成为更多家长的选择。不论如何，在家接受教育的孩子受到更多关注，因为教他们的是最好的老师：最希望把他们教育好的家长。
241在Thomas教授作为植物学教授的17年里，她证明了自己确实是值 50000元年薪的。她的班级是本校最大的班级之一，这说明她在学生中间的受欢迎度。而且，她给学校带来的研究捐助在过去两年中都超过了她的年薪。因此，鉴于Thomas教授已被证实的教学和研究能力，我们建议将她的年薪增加10000元，并提升为系主任;如果没有这些加薪和提升，我们担心Thomas教授将会离开Elm
City大学到别的学校就职。
242去年，统一铜公司(CCC)在热带国家West Fredonia购买了上百万平方英里的土地。在这些地方采矿将会不可避免地导致污染和环境灾害，因为West Fredonia是很多濒危物种的栖居地。但如果消费者简单地拒绝购买用CCC所生产的铜而制造的产品，直到CCC放弃它的采矿计划就可以避免这种灾害。