Between A and C I choose A.

Sharon's statement starts with "But....." from which we should infer that she is feeling that 90% is the unemployment rate, and then goes to give her justification.

why I feel C is not an answer because even if the statement about atleast 5% is correct even then the percentage which Roland gives is possible because few unempolyed will be known by many. This is not reflected in Sharon's argument.

Agree, (A) is the best.

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 1 out of 20 workers unemployed. So at any given time if a person knows approximately 50 workers, 1 or more will very likely be unemployed.

Sharon's argument is structured to lead to which of the following as a conclusion?

(A) The fact that 90% of the people know someone who is unemployed is not an indication that unemployment is abnormally high.
(B) The current level of unemployment is not moderate.
(C) If at least 5% of workers are unemployed, the result of questioning a representative group of people cannot be the percentage Roland cites.
(D) It is unlikely that the people whose statements Roland cites are giving accurate reports.
(E) If an unemployment figure is given as a certain percent, the actual percentage of those without jobs is even higher.

Note : I have found explanation of question with same paragraph but with different question stem. Therefore, request experts to provide their answers with explanations
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Hi,

Let's first understand the argument at hand:

Roland says that "The alarming fact is that a fact".

'A Fact' stands for the information that 90 percent of the people in this country now report that they know someone who is unemployed.

Now, there are two parts of Roland's statement. One (latter part) is a fact and the other ("The alarming fact") is a judgement.

Sharon's argument starts with a "But". It means she is either going to counter the judgment or the fact.

In this case, the statement of Sharon clearly does not counter the Roland's fact. It says that at a moderate level of employment, it is likely for people to know at least one person who is employed. So, basically, she counters the judgement of Roland which says that the fact presents some alarming information.

This is what is stated by Option A, which says that the fact doesn't imply that the unemployment is abnormally high (or alarmingly high).

Therefore, the correct choice is option A.

Let's look at other options:

Option C and D can be eliminated on the basis of our discussion. Sharon does not counter the fact cited by Roland.

Option B goes against the Sharon's statement while option E is completely irrelevant.

Critical Reasoning questions are also asked in the new IR section of GMAT. Click on the below image to access a critical reasoning IR question with detailed approach to such questions.



Hope this helps

Thanks,
Chiranjeev
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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 1 out of 20 workers unemployed. So at any given time if a person knows approximately 50 workers, 1 or more will very likely be unemployed.

Sharon's argument is structured to lead to which of the following as a conclusion?

(A) The fact that 90% of the people know someone who is unemployed is not an indication that unemployment is abnormally high. Within the scope
(B) The current level of unemployment is not moderate. very generic statement
(C) If at least 5% of workers are unemployed, the result of questioning a representative group of people cannot be the percentage Roland cites. OFS
(D) It is unlikely that the people whose statements Roland cites are giving accurate reports. If Passage is true than what might be true (conclusion). So, we can't question the validity of premise
(E) If an unemployment figure is given as a certain percent, the actual percentage of those without jobs is even higher.
Passage do not mention about any figure
My 2nd attempt with PoE
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