Ch01
Student: ___________________________________________________________________________
1. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Will a beverage begin to cool more quickly in the freezer or in the regular part of the refrigerator? Well,
of course it'll cool faster in the freezer! There are lots of people who don't understand anything at all
about physics and who think things may begin to cool faster in the fridge. But they're sadly mistaken.
2. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
It's true that you can use your television set to tell when a tornado is approaching. The reason is that
tornadoes make an electrical disturbance in the 55 megahertz range, which is close to the band assigned
to channel 2. If you know how to do it, you can get your set to pick up the current given off by the
twister. So your television set can be your warning device that tells you when to dive for the cellar.
—Adapted from Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope
3. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Some of these guys who do Elvis Presley imitations actually pay more for their outfits than Elvis paid for
his! Anybody who would spend thousands just so he can spend a few minutes not fooling anybody into
thinking he's Elvis is nuts.
4. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "The argument advanced at a
recent government hearing—that because we will not be dependent on plutonium for more than a few
hundred years it ‘will not be an important problem indefinitely'—entirely misses the point. Though we
may rely on plutonium for only a relatively brief period, the plutonium produced during that period may
be with us indefinitely, and it may jeopardize the lives of many times the number of generations that
profit from its use."
—Ronald M. Green, "International Justice and Environmental Responsibility"
,5. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "Gene splicing is the most
awesome and powerful skill acquired by man since the splitting of the atom. If pursued humanistically,
its potential to serve humanity is enormous. We will use it to synthesize expensive natural products—
interferon, substances such as insulin, and human endorphins that serve as natural painkillers. We will be
able to create a second ‘green revolution' in agriculture to produce new high-yield, disease-resistant, self-
fertilizing crops. Gene splicing has the potential to synthesize new substances we can substitute for oil,
coal, and other raw materials—keys to a self-sustaining society."
—John Naisbitt, Megatrends
6. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Computers will never be able to converse intelligently through speech. A simple example proves that this
is so. The sentences "How do you recognize speech?" and "How do you wreck a nice beach?" sound just
the same when they are spoken, but they mean something different. A computer could not distinguish the
two.
7. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
You'd better not pet that dog. She looks friendly, but she's been known to bite.
8. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
It is obvious why some men have trouble understanding why women become upset over pornography.
Pornography depicts women as servants or slaves, and men cannot conceive of themselves in this
role.
,9. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
I don't care how well Thompson played last week. If he misses practice one more time, he's not going to
play in the tournament, and that's that.
10. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Except maybe for finance and business law, schools of business really don't have very much of their own
subject matter to teach to students. All the rest is really mathematics, psychology, English, speech, and
other standard subjects that business schools call by other names.
11. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Right now there are as many as half a million military-style assault guns in the hands of private citizens
in the United States. These small, light, easy-to-handle weapons are exemplified by the Israeli UZI, the
American MAC-10 and AR-15, and the KG-99. All of these are sophisticated weapons manufactured for
the single purpose of killing human beings in large numbers very quickly.
12. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "It is better to be a human being
dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or
the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question."
—John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism
, 13. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "The personal computer
revolution is marked by accidental discoveries. The entire market for these things was a big surprise to
all the pioneers who put simple ads in hobbyist magazines and were stunned by an onslaught of eager
customers."
—John C. Dvorak
14. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "The main danger of war, even
of a war fought with conventional weapons, lies in its unpredictability."
—Anatoly Gromyko, "Security for All in the Nuclear Age," in Breakthrough
15. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "The recent failure of a Drake
University student to halt his former girlfriend's plan for an abortion focuses light on a seldom considered
situation: While a woman's right to an abortion should not be weakened, the idea of ‘fathers' rights' raised
in this case should be discussed."
—The Daily Iowan
16. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "If American business is to
regain an advantageous position in the international marketplace, it must recreate a climate of flexibility
and entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, the trend is to seek personal success not through entrepreneurship
but through professionalism, as a continued climb in the number of advanced degrees in business and law
confirms. If this tendency to seek personal security and prestige by joining the ranks of the professionally
comfortable continues, the real winners will be America's overseas competitors."
—Irving Greenberg
Student: ___________________________________________________________________________
1. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Will a beverage begin to cool more quickly in the freezer or in the regular part of the refrigerator? Well,
of course it'll cool faster in the freezer! There are lots of people who don't understand anything at all
about physics and who think things may begin to cool faster in the fridge. But they're sadly mistaken.
2. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
It's true that you can use your television set to tell when a tornado is approaching. The reason is that
tornadoes make an electrical disturbance in the 55 megahertz range, which is close to the band assigned
to channel 2. If you know how to do it, you can get your set to pick up the current given off by the
twister. So your television set can be your warning device that tells you when to dive for the cellar.
—Adapted from Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope
3. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Some of these guys who do Elvis Presley imitations actually pay more for their outfits than Elvis paid for
his! Anybody who would spend thousands just so he can spend a few minutes not fooling anybody into
thinking he's Elvis is nuts.
4. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "The argument advanced at a
recent government hearing—that because we will not be dependent on plutonium for more than a few
hundred years it ‘will not be an important problem indefinitely'—entirely misses the point. Though we
may rely on plutonium for only a relatively brief period, the plutonium produced during that period may
be with us indefinitely, and it may jeopardize the lives of many times the number of generations that
profit from its use."
—Ronald M. Green, "International Justice and Environmental Responsibility"
,5. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "Gene splicing is the most
awesome and powerful skill acquired by man since the splitting of the atom. If pursued humanistically,
its potential to serve humanity is enormous. We will use it to synthesize expensive natural products—
interferon, substances such as insulin, and human endorphins that serve as natural painkillers. We will be
able to create a second ‘green revolution' in agriculture to produce new high-yield, disease-resistant, self-
fertilizing crops. Gene splicing has the potential to synthesize new substances we can substitute for oil,
coal, and other raw materials—keys to a self-sustaining society."
—John Naisbitt, Megatrends
6. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Computers will never be able to converse intelligently through speech. A simple example proves that this
is so. The sentences "How do you recognize speech?" and "How do you wreck a nice beach?" sound just
the same when they are spoken, but they mean something different. A computer could not distinguish the
two.
7. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
You'd better not pet that dog. She looks friendly, but she's been known to bite.
8. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
It is obvious why some men have trouble understanding why women become upset over pornography.
Pornography depicts women as servants or slaves, and men cannot conceive of themselves in this
role.
,9. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
I don't care how well Thompson played last week. If he misses practice one more time, he's not going to
play in the tournament, and that's that.
10. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Except maybe for finance and business law, schools of business really don't have very much of their own
subject matter to teach to students. All the rest is really mathematics, psychology, English, speech, and
other standard subjects that business schools call by other names.
11. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument.
Right now there are as many as half a million military-style assault guns in the hands of private citizens
in the United States. These small, light, easy-to-handle weapons are exemplified by the Israeli UZI, the
American MAC-10 and AR-15, and the KG-99. All of these are sophisticated weapons manufactured for
the single purpose of killing human beings in large numbers very quickly.
12. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "It is better to be a human being
dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or
the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question."
—John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism
, 13. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "The personal computer
revolution is marked by accidental discoveries. The entire market for these things was a big surprise to
all the pioneers who put simple ads in hobbyist magazines and were stunned by an onslaught of eager
customers."
—John C. Dvorak
14. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "The main danger of war, even
of a war fought with conventional weapons, lies in its unpredictability."
—Anatoly Gromyko, "Security for All in the Nuclear Age," in Breakthrough
15. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "The recent failure of a Drake
University student to halt his former girlfriend's plan for an abortion focuses light on a seldom considered
situation: While a woman's right to an abortion should not be weakened, the idea of ‘fathers' rights' raised
in this case should be discussed."
—The Daily Iowan
16. Determine whether the following passage is (or contains) an argument. "If American business is to
regain an advantageous position in the international marketplace, it must recreate a climate of flexibility
and entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, the trend is to seek personal success not through entrepreneurship
but through professionalism, as a continued climb in the number of advanced degrees in business and law
confirms. If this tendency to seek personal security and prestige by joining the ranks of the professionally
comfortable continues, the real winners will be America's overseas competitors."
—Irving Greenberg
