Why Adults Visit Amusement Parks

Adults visit amusement parks for several reasons. For one thing, an amusement park is a place where it is acceptable to "pig out" on junk food. At the park, everyone is drinking soda and eating popcorn, ice cream, or hot dogs. No one seems to be on a diet, and so buying all the junk food you can eat is a guilt-free experience. Parks should provide stands where healthier food, such as salads or cold chicken, would be sold. Another reason people visit amusement parks is to prove themselves. They want to visit the park that has the newest, scariest ride in order to say that they went on the Parachute Drop, the seven-story Elevator, the Water Chute, or the Death Slide. Going on a scary ride is a way to feel courageous and adventurous without taking much of a risk. Some rides, however, can be dangerous. Rides that are not properly inspected or maintained have killed people all over the country. A final reason people visit amusement parks is to escape from everyday pressures. When people are poised at the top of a gigantic roller coaster, they are not thinking of bills, work, or personal problems. A scary ride empties the mind of all worries—except making it to the bottom alive. Adults at an amusement park may claim they have come for their children, but they are there for themselves as well.

(Source: Langan, John (2008). English Skills with Readings)

Activity 2: Evaluating the quality of evidence

1) Consider the following cases. Decide if their logic is valid or invalid:

a) Political commentary regarding the stand on ballot counting taken by Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State: invalid

“Her eyes, rimmed in liner and frosted with blue shadow, bore the telltale… spikes of false eyelashes. Caterpillars seemed to rise and fall with every bat of her eyelid, with every downward glance.”

b) Research project: valid

Mike wrote a paper on gun control. He drew information from two sources: a paid political advertisement and three pamphlets from the National Rifle Association.

c) Post on a general-interest website: valid

A ninety-year-old woman makes her own wine using whole grapes. Recently she had a minor stroke, but is now completely recovered. She attributes her recovery to drinking three small glasses of her homemade wine daily.

2) Read through the following overview of interests that different Canadian stakeholders have in that country’s logging regulations:

1. The forestry industry makes money from cutting down trees.

2. The environmentalists want to protect the forests against logging companies.

3. The Canadian government gets lots of taxes from the forestry industry. On the other hand, they also represent other citizens and social groups who may be concerned about over-logging. So the government tries to satisfy all interest groups involved in the issue.

Decide whose perspectives are represented in the following quotations and match each of them with one of the interest groups above:

2 "The rainforests are quite simply the richest, oldest, most productive and most complex ecosystems on Earth."

1 "Each year, forest fires destroy more forests than are used for making pulp and paper. It is also worth noting that logging is still the biggest employer and the single biggest contributor to tax revenue in British Columbia.”

3 "67% of the fibre used to make Canadian pulp and paper comes from sawmill residue and recovered paper that used to be disposed of in landfills."

(Adapted from http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/570/pulp/hemp11.htm)

Activity 3: Evaluating the amount of evidence

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16