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Critical Thinking and Reading

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Article 3: To Tattoo or Not to Tattoo (to discuss in week 4 seminar)
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow it.

The increase in the number of people with tattoos is a good thing. According to a worldwide survey carried out by the HSBC bank, 46 per cent of people see tattoos as ‘self expression’. However, in the UK, 30 per cent of people described them as ‘down-market’, compared with only 7 per cent of those in the US. It must be significant that there is a large number of US A- list celebrities who have tattoos. In the Top Twenty-Five Tattooed Celebrities list, there are fifteen females and eleven males. The top is Angelina Jolie who has at least twelve. Hugh Hefner (the owner of ‘Playboy’) described fourth-placed Jessica Alba as the ‘Sexiest Woman Celebrity in the World’ and she has many tattoos. Obviously, people with tattoos are seen as very attractive.
People like David Beckham and Robbie Williams have been responsible for an increase in people wanting tattoos in the UK, but the growth hasn’t been as great as it has been in the US (where 1 in 10 adults has one). This could change, however. Given that in 2103 the UK Prime Minister’s wife had a tattoo (a dolphin on her ankle), this must have contributed to an increase in the number of women having tattoos.
The third of the UK population who see tattoos as ‘down-market’ should remember that the upper class used to have them. For example, the Queen’s grandfather and great- grandfather, George V and Edward VII, had them. (Perhaps, secretly, the torso of Prince Charles is covered with Chinese inscriptions, hearts, and raging dragons.) The increase in the number of people having them will make tattoos seem less ‘down-market’.
Though 75 per cent of people with tattoos regret having them done, it is right that people are allowed to make mistakes. After all, it is possible to have them removed.
Lots of people have cosmetic surgery in order to change their appearance. In this way, having a tattoo is like having cosmetic surgery. By improving their self-image, tattoos make people happier. In addition, tattoos are a good way of allowing people to be creative. They’re not really any different from someone spending money on clothes as self-expression.
Questions
(A) What is the conclusion of the above argument?

(B) What are the four reasons that are used to support the conclusion?

(C) In the first paragraph, the author sees a causal link between the ‘large number of A-list celebrities who have tattoos’ and what other piece of evidence?

(D) What assumptions must the author make to argue for the causal link identified in (C)? Give at least two.

(E) Evaluate the way in which the author argues at the end of the first paragraph that ‘people with tattoos are seen as very attractive.’

(F) What assumption is needed for the author to argue that the UK Prime Minister’s wife having a tattoo ‘must have contributed to an increase in the number of women having tattoos’?

(G) In the third paragraph the author claims that ‘The increase in the number of people having them will make tattoos seem less “down-market”.’ To what extent is this claim supported by the evidence on the upper classes?

(H) What is the significance of the fourth paragraph for the author’s argument?

(I) In the final paragraph, the author uses two analogies. Identify these.

(J) Evaluate the analogies identified in your answer to question (I). You need to identify similarities and differences.
(K) Identify a principle in the passage.

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