Ambiguity

Task 1- Identify the problems of ambiguity in the following examples:

1. Dr. E's dogs eat over 10 pounds of meat every week.

Pounds is weigh or money
Each dog or all of dogs
2. Headline: Advice to teachers and parents on drug.
Drug is addictive or medical
On drug: about drug/ are using drug
3. After their father removed the trash from the pool, the kids played in it.
Play in the pool or play in the trash
4. The food aid was ruined on the date it was received by the Parthian refugee agency.
The food aid was ruined by the Parthian refugee agency.
The food aid was received by the Parthian refugee agency.
5. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli had a standard acknowledgement for people who
sent him unsolicited (unwanted) manuscript for his opinion. “Thank you for the manuscript.
I shall lose no time in reading it.
I won’t read it
I read it as soon as possible
6. A student says to her adviser: “Last term I took Logic and Introduction to Philosophy. I
hope I have more exciting courses this term.
Logic and Introduction to Philosophy are exciting and want to ha similar one
Logic and Introduction to Philosophy are boring and want to have another one
7. Your mother says you shouldn't argue with your elders. Your instructor is older than you,
and she says that this course is about arguing. How can you possibly pass this course and
still be a good son or daughter?

" About arguing" doesn't mean the students have to argue with the instructors.

Task 2- Read the following passages and identify ambiguous words/phrases.

1. Saying that having a gun in the home is an accident waiting to happen is like saying that
people who buy life insurance are waiting to die. We should be allowed to protect ourselves.

2. If cigarette advertising were banned, cigarette manufacturers would save the money they
would otherwise have spent on advertising. Thus, in order to compete with each other, they
would reduce the price of cigarettes. So, banning cigarette advertising would be likely to
lead to an increase in smoking.

1
3. Mary: ‘I’ve been learning about equality before the law. I had no idea it was so important in
our political system.’
Peter: ‘Human beings vary enormously in intelligence, strength, wealth and many other
qualities, so all this talk of equality is a nonsense.

4. Miguel: Solar cell panels are a natural way of generating energy without burning fossil fuel,
so the government should be investing in them much faster.

Carmen: Natural? You’ve got to be joking. They are the most artificial monstrosities you
ever saw. A blot on the landscape.

5. It's not wrong for newspapers to pass on rumors about sex scandals. Newspapers have a duty
to print stories that are in the public interest, and the public clearly has a great interest in
rumors about sex scandals, since, when newspapers print such stories, their circulation
increases, and they receive a large number of letters.

6. The government is spending far too much money on health care. The government could
continue to fund health care for those who need it, but should not fund health care for people
who do not deserve it. Cutting health care expenditures would lead to lower taxes and give
citizens more spending power. With the current state of the American economy, anything
that helps the citizen’s pocketbook would help America in the long run.

Which group of people who do not deserve it: the rich who can pay themselves
Which group of people who do need it: the elderly, children…
lower taxes and the citizen’s pocketbook: giảm thuế or phải tự trả tiền cho các dịch vụ y tế
> có thực sự help or not