Appreciate your feedback on the below. It came from my second practice exam (the first exam - I didn't know I wouldn't have a chance to get the text back at the end, so I didn't copy it to the clipboard...).
"In general, people are not as concerned as they were a decade ago
about regulating their intake of red meat and fatty cheeses. Walk
into the Heart's Delight, a store that started selling organic fruits
and vegetables and whole-grain flours in the 1960's, and you will also
find a wide selection of cheeses made with high butterfat content.
Next door, the owners of the Good Earth Café, an old vegetarian
restaurant, are still making a modest living, but the owners of the
new House of Beef across the street are millionaires."
"In general, people are not as concerned as they were a decade ago
about regulating their intake of red meat and fatty cheeses. Walk
into the Heart's Delight, a store that started selling organic fruits
and vegetables and whole-grain flours in the 1960's, and you will also
find a wide selection of cheeses made with high butterfat content.
Next door, the owners of the Good Earth Café, an old vegetarian
restaurant, are still making a modest living, but the owners of the
new House of Beef across the street are millionaires."
From the data given, the argument that in general people are not as concerned as they were a decade ago about red meat and fatty cheese, lacks substance and coherent reasoning. I will outline some of the flaws below.
The argument refers to three establishments, which doesn't offer enough data to make all-encompassing statements like "in general...". There is no indication on what percentage of the general population frequent the establishments, but without such an indication, the "In general..." part of the argument is not validated. If any inference at all can be drawn from the passage, it is that these are three local businesses, therefore it is unlikely that their clientele reflects the general public at large.
Heart's Delight has been open since the 1960s. There is no indication of how long ago they started selling high-fat cheese. It could be fifty years, a decade, or last week. So from the data given, it is impossible to infer anything about the market for high-fat cheese as compared to a decade ago. Perhaps a decade ago they sold many times the amount, perhaps they sold none.
Heart's Delight may have a wide selection of high-fat cheese for sale, but there is no indication of the quantity sold, and how it relates to their customer base (notwithstanding the second paragraph of the essay which implies that even if they sell a lot of high-fat cheese, it doesn't necessarily extrapolate to ). It could even be that as a specialist store, if they are selling a large amount of high-fat cheese to a large number of customers, that is because a large percentage of the market for that product comes to that specific store.
The steady business of the Good Earth Cafe is not especially relevant, as far as the data given go. As a vegetarian restaurant, it may generally cater to those of a certain ideology, not those who are concerned about red meat and fatty cheese. As far as red meat is concerned, the argument mentions "regulating their intake", not avoiding certain foods altogether. Vegetarians eating at the Good Earth Cafe are not concerned with regulating their intake of red meat, and have not been as long as they have been vegetarians.
The success of the House of Beef doesn't say anything about people's concern about the foods they eat. Even though the House of Beef is successful - all else being equal, and only considering people's concern about eating red meat, it might have been more or less successful a decade ago. As a new restaurant, there is no data to compare to a decade ago, which is the basis of the argument.
Also, there is no data regarding the catchment area. If it is the best steakhouse in a 500-mile radius, it is likely to draw customers from far afield, but the amount of red meat eaten per-person in that catchment area may still be low.
Furthermore, as a meat restaurant, it is unlikely to have much to do with people's intake of fatty cheese.
As another general point, there is no data whatsoever on the change in the levels of supply and demand for red meat and fatty cheeses over the last decade. Also, price information is important. It may even be that demand for these foods has increased, because prices of other foods have made these foods especially cheap. For families on a budget, this may be an overriding concern. Even though they may be more concerned about these foods than they were a decade ago.
Therefore the argument is weak on many levels.
