Bunuel
Incumbent candidate for governor: As the people of our great state know, my administration has created unprecedented economic prosperity and job growth. Just look at the unemployment rate, which has reached its lowest point in nearly twenty years!
Opposing candidate for governor: That’s preposterous. You overlook the fact that the unemployment rate is just as much a function of the number of people in the labor market as much as it is of the number of people employed. Your greatest contribution to the economy has been a series of retirement parties and moves to other states!
The opposing candidate’s reply to the incumbent proceeds by:
(A) Supplying a statistic that undermines the incumbent’s conclusion.
(B) Suggesting that the incumbent’s statistic is factually inaccurate.
(C) Offering a statistic that sheds additional light on the statistic supplied by the incumbent.
(D) Claiming that the incumbent used a statistic irrelevant to his conclusion.
(E) Pointing out that the incumbent cited a statistic that does not necessarily support his conclusion.
Veritas Prep Official Explanation:
In this Method of Reasoning question, you're asked to describe the opposing candidate's reply, so pay particular attention to that. Note that the opponent does not supply any statistics, so choices A, B, and C are not accurate descriptions of the response. And he does not say that the statistic is irrelevant, just that there is more to the statistic than the incumbent had implied. The opponent points out that the unemployment rate may be more a function of the denominator (the number in the labor market) than the numerator (the number of those people without jobs), so he is saying that the statistic might not actually support the claim of the incumbent.
Thus, choice E is an apt description.