The following appeared in a letter to the editor of Parson City's local

newspaper.
"In our region of Trillura, the majority of money spent on the schools
that most students attendthe city-run public schoolscomes from
taxes that each city government collects. The region's cities differ,
however, in the budgetary priority they give to public education. For
example, both as a proportion of its overall tax revenues and in
absolute terms, Parson City has recently spent almost twice as much
per year as Blue City has for its public schoolseven though both cities
have about the same number of residents. Clearly, Parson City
residents place a higher value on providing a good education in public
schools than Blue City residents do."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed
to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken
or strengthen the argument.

The argument that Paroson city residents place a higher value on providing a
good education in public schools than Blue city residents is based is based on
weak arguments and without accounting for facts which could provide evidence
in favour or against the argument. The argument is weakened by lack of
evidences discussed below.
Firstly, the author fails to provide details of the number of school going children,
as a proportion of total population, in both the cities which constitute a major
factor on spending. Also, in case any satellite towns are present nearby, the
children from nearby towns would also be attending school at Parson city. Any
details of this would have provided a clear picture.
Secondly, in absence of historical trends in spending of both the towns, it is not
possible to comment if the spending stated by the author has any relationship
with recent infrastructure development project that Parson city might be
undertaking which is already present in the Blue City. Any infrastructure
development would increase the spending significantly.
Thirdly, as there is no breakup available for proportion of tax to the total
spending on both the cities. It is quite possible that Blue City being a business
town, has major contribution of donations from corporate house as a part of their
social responsibility expenditure. This is a common practice by corporates to
support public educational initiatives.
Moreover, we are not aware about other heads of tax revenue spending, which
might provide a distorted figure of proportional spending. For example, it is quite
possible that Blue city has more spending on higher education in forms of
university and colleges. This would result in lower spending of tax revenues on
schools in proportional of total spending. This further weakens the argument.
To conclude, the argument stated that Paroson city residents place a higher value
on providing a good education in public schools than Blue city residents is loosely
based on assumptions. In absence of the is information available on the above
stated points, the argument fails to make a point.

Claim: Many problems of modern society cannot be solved by laws

and the legal system.
Reason: Laws cannot change what is in people's hearts or minds.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which
you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on
which that claim is based.

Let us look at the evolution of laws and legal system in society, to have an
understanding of the issue. There are socially accepted values, customs, norms,
mores, tradition in a society which are later codified into laws for uniform
understanding ease of application. Legal system then evolves to ensure
implementation of these laws in just and fair way.
These values customs, norms, mores and traditions are essence of the existence
of society on which the very foundation of law and legal system exists. Existing
laws are the mirror of evolved thought process of generations.
With the evolution of modern society, there are many instances where the laws
are not well equipped or even capable of solving the problems. As laws and legal
systems evolve with needs of society. Eg. Sati custom of burning of wife along
with dead husband was banned in 1920s in India was a custom since ages.
Gradually, awareness among masses on the sensitivity of this issue increased
and later not a single incident is reported today. It takes time and resolute
reformers to address the pertinent issues at hand with help of law.
Currently, the problems of war crimes, terrorism, access to safe drinking water,
sustainable development etc. can only be solved by a strong political will and
global effort in this direction. Declarations by UN conventions and protocols
signed by most of the nations result in disappoint in progress in areas of
environment, global poverty and peace. This indicates that somewhere, there is
lack of resolution and self-interest of nations larger than that of global
sustainability issues. This gives a little grounding to the claim that laws cannot
change what is in peoples hearts or minds.
Moreover, the progress made by nations in eradication of hunger and achieving
self sufficiency in food grain production by many nations in past 50 years has
largely to do with strong legal framework supported by strong conviction to drive
change.
To conclude, the claim that many problems of modern society cannot be solved
by laws and legal system is true to an extent but the reason provided that laws
cannot change what is in the peoples heats or minds is not strong as laws are
reflection of peoples will.