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OG-12 CR Q-71 The alarming fact

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by ankit0411 » Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:06 am
Roland: The alarming fact is that 90 percent of the 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 the population
(C) the number of people who each 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

Guys please help me on this one. I am confused with the assumption in the answer. I think C should be the answer but the right answer is B .Can anyone please explain ?

Many Thanks,
Ankit
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by avik.ch » Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:26 am
An assumption is a statement that weakens the argument when it is taken away from the argument core, because its the assumption on which the argument rest upon. Its like a floor of the house, which can't be seen, but if taken away the house falls apart.

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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by ankit0411 » Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:38 am
avik.ch wrote:An assumption is a statement that weakens the argument when it is taken away from the argument core, because its the assumption on which the argument rest upon. Its like a floor of the house, which can't be seen, but if taken away the house falls apart.

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.
Thanks for the reply !
I'm still a little confused with your explanation.

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.
AFAIK , here what your trying to say is distribution of unemployment is not the same. Accepted.
So the assumption should lie in this point that Sharon assumes this takes place and is not wrong.

Hence option B satisfies the answer.
Correct me if I'm wrong.[/quote]
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by ankita1709 » Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:31 am
Even I was confused with the answer given in OG 12. I also thought it should be C.
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