今天，我们来看这个指令： Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted. 对于这个指令，许多同学不明白assumption 的真实意思（虽然ta们明白中文对译过来的意思是“假设”）。但是，在这里的assumption理解为“假设”，好像对于我们理解指令的要求没有什么帮助。于是，说人话：作者在讨论的时候默认了某些前提或者其实就是忽略了那些前提，ta在文中的各处论证都是要建立在这些前提之下的。那么这些被默认或忽略的前提就是指令中的assumptions。 接下来，我们看一道题目，通过分析来具体理解assumption。 题目如下： The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of Quiot Manufacturing. “During the past year, Quiot Manufacturing had 30 percent more on-the-job accidents than at the nearby Panoply Industries plant, where the work shifts are one hour shorter than ours. Experts say that significant contributing factors in many on-the-job accidents are fatigue and sleep deprivation among workers. Therefore, to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents at Quiot and thereby increase productivity, we should shorten each of our three work shifts by one hour so that employees will get adequate amounts of sleep.” Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted. 我们例举出2个assumption带着大家理解： 例一： The most conspicuous assumption may be that the manufacturing job at Quiot is the same as the job at Panoply Industries. 我们把作者的默认和根据这个默认的讨论拆分开，大家就可以看明白：接下来的讨论都是考虑到如果这个默认的情况并不存在的时候，会发生什么情况。 Without stating this premise, we cannot rule out the possibility that the jobs, at the two manufacturing plants, are different and, as a result, have different levels of risk of accidents. For example, workers at Quiot may deal with hazardous materials at work whereas workers at Panoply may not. In this case, it is the very specific content of the job at Quiot Manufacturing that had caused the greater number of accidents. 例二： The author makes another assumption that the length of each work shift is the only reason why on-the-job accidents take place. 我们把作者的默认和根据这个默认的讨论拆分开，大家就可以看明白：接下来的讨论都是考虑到如果这个默认的情况并不存在的时候，会发生什么情况。 The author should then specifically rule out all other probable factors that could also result in accidents.Otherwise, the assumption is questionable because there are many factors that are also highly likely to affect workplace safety, such as whether workers wear protective gear at work, whether they are able to operate the tools and equipment properly and safely. At this point, we may also find that it may be the number of work shifts during a day, which contribute to the total work hours of a day, instead of the length of each shift, that had caused the accidents. 对于这个assumption这个指令的理解是：作者在讨论的时候默认了某些前提或者其实就是忽略了那些前提，于是我们讨论当这些默认的前提其实不对的时候，文本中的argument就会出什么错。
