Assignment task: Determine what the passage contains arguments, and explain your answer.
1. I hate the new music played today. You can't even find a station on either AM or FM that plays decent music anymore. The movies are no better. They are just high-priced commercials for ridiculous products, designed to dupe unsuspecting, unintelligent, unthinking, unenlightened consumers.
2. We are going to have a recession. For 100 years, anytime the stock market has lost at least 20% of its value from its highest point in any fiscal year, there has been a recession. The current stock market has lost 22% of its value during the last fiscal year.
3. The cost of electronic items, such as televisions, computers, and cell phones, goes down every year. In addition, the quality of the electronic products goes up every year. More and more people throughout the world will soon be able to afford at least one of those items.
4. Johnny wondered if the weather would affect his plans. He worried that all the little fuses and wires he had prepared might have become damp during the night, who could have thought of rain at this time of year? He felt a sudden shiver of doubt. It was too late now. All was set in motion. If he was to become the most famous man in the valley he had to carry on regardless. He would not fail.
5. I don't know when children stop dreaming. But I do know when hope starts leaking away because I've seen it happen. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time talking with schoolchildren of all ages. And I have seen the cloud of resignation move across their eyes as they travel through school without making any real progress. They know they are slipping through the net into the huge underclass that our society seems willing to tolerate. We must educate our children. And if we do, I believe that will be enough. Alan Page, Minnesota Supreme.
6. Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments. Isaac Asimov, Treasury of Humor
7. Kedah Health Department employees who smoke will not be eligible for the annual excellence performance awards even if they do well in their work. The Director said, "Thirty percent or 3,900 of our 13,000 department personnel are smokers. As staff representing a health department, they should act as role models. Thus, I hope that they will quit smoking."