Roland: The alarming fact is that 90 percent of the people in this cou

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