GMAT优秀作文鉴赏精选

The following appeared in an Avia Airlines departmental memorandum.

On average, 9 out of every 1,000 passengers who traveled on Avia Airlines last year filed a complaint about our baggage-handling procedures. This means that although some 1 percent of our passengers were unhappy with those procedures, the overwhelming majority were quite satisfied with them; thus it would appear that a review of the procedures is not important to our goal of maintaining or increasing the number of Avias passengers.

Discuss how well reasoned... etc.

The conclusion in this Avia Airlines memorandum is that a review of the airlines baggage-handling procedures will not further its goal of maintaining or increasing the number of Avia passengers. The authors line of reasoning is that the great majority of Avia passengers are happy with baggage handling at the airline because only one percent of passengers who traveled on Avia last year filed a complaint about Avias procedures. This argument is problematic in two important respects.

First, the argument turns on the assumption that the 99 percent of Avia passengers who did not complain were happy with the airlines baggage-handling procedures. However, the author provides no evidence to support this assumption. The fact that, on the average, 9 out of 1000 passengers took the time and effort to formally complain indicates nothing about the experiences or attitudes of the remaining 991. It is possible that many passengers were displeased but too busy to formally complain, while others had no opinion at all. Lacking more complete information about passengers attitudes, we cannot assume that the great majority of passengers who did not complain were happy.