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CR Problem on Unemployment

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by sherryavi » Sat Oct 22, 2011 10:25 pm
Roland: The alarming fact is that 90% of people in this country now report that they know someone who is unemployed.

Sharon: But a normal, moderate level of unemployment is 5 percent, with one out of 20 workers unemployed. So at any given time if a person knows approximately 50 workers, one or more will very likely be unemployed.

Sharon`s argument relies on the assumption that

(A) normal levels of unemployment are rarely exceeded

(B) unemployment is not normally concentrated in geographically isolated segments of population.

(C) the number of people who know someone who is unemployed is always higher than 90 percent of the population.

(D) Roland is not consciously distorting the statistics he presents.

(E) knowledge that a personal acquaintance is unemployed generates more fear of losing one`s job than does knowledge of unemployment statistics.


Request you to please help me with the question, and also why do you make an option your choice of answer?

Thanks in advance
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by smackmartine » Sat Oct 22, 2011 11:55 pm
IMO B
Few points to note for assumption questions :

1-NO NO to extreme answers.
2-Apply negation test on contender options!

(A) normal levels of unemployment are rarely exceeded (extreme)

(B) unemployment is not normally concentrated in geographically isolated segments of population.

Negate B : unemployment IS normally concentrated in geographically isolated segments of population.---> If this were true each person would have known more than just one or two unemployed worker(according to Sharon's statement). This means the population is so scattered that both of the author's evidences makes sense.

(C) the number of people who know someone who is unemployed is always higher than 90 percent of the population. (extreme)

(D) Roland is not consciously distorting the statistics he presents. [on GMAT we generally do not attack premises, so this answer is very obvious- So incorrect]

(E) knowledge that a personal acquaintance is unemployed generates more fear of losing one`s job than does knowledge of unemployment statistics. [out of scope, however negate the sentence and you will find that the statement has no effect on the argument]
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by vaibhavgupta » Sun Oct 23, 2011 4:42 am
sherryavi wrote:Roland: The alarming fact is that 90% of people in this country now report that they know someone who is unemployed.

Sharon: But a normal, moderate level of unemployment is 5 percent, with one out of 20 workers unemployed. So at any given time if a person knows approximately 50 workers, one or more will very likely be unemployed.

Sharon`s argument relies on the assumption that

(A) normal levels of unemployment are rarely exceeded

(B) unemployment is not normally concentrated in geographically isolated segments of population.

(C) the number of people who know someone who is unemployed is always higher than 90 percent of the population.

(D) Roland is not consciously distorting the statistics he presents.

(E) knowledge that a personal acquaintance is unemployed generates more fear of losing one`s job than does knowledge of unemployment statistics.


Request you to please help me with the question, and also why do you make an option your choice of answer?

Thanks in advance
IMO B

Whats OA???
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by thestartupguy » Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:35 am
OA: B
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by smackmartine » Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:41 am
Wanted to add one more point on assumption:

Few points to note for assumption questions :

1-NO NO to extreme answers.
2-Apply negation test on contender options!
3- Sometimes when you get extreme words such as CANNOT, WILL NOT etc., check whether the option is trying to defend the conclusion by discounting other reasons that may harm the conclusion. This kinda options are in fact correct answers.
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by mankey » Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:43 am
Can someone please explain this problem. One of the users did try to provide an explanation but that is not very clear to me.

Please help.

Thanks.
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by avik.ch » Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:51 pm
This is an OG question.

How can you weaken Sharon's argument : by showing that the distribution of unemployment is not same everywhere or not same in all demographic zone. So Sharon is assuming that this not possible here.
In order to keep the argument valid - we have to assume that this is wrong. Its assumption in defender role that save the argument from external attack.

So B is the answer.

The other way to do this is to negate each answer choice : B clearly weakens the argument if you negate it.

Hope this helps.
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