Susan: The President claims to understand the problems faced

Question

Susan: The President claims to understand the problems faced by the poor. I don’t think he can make such a claim. The President came from a wealthy family and has never had to work for a living or suffer the problems of poverty.

Paul: Your reasoning is flawed. After all, you yourself come from a comfortably middle-class family and have never been poor either.

Which of the following possible responses by Susan would most directly address Paul’s criticism?

A. I am not the President, so understanding and solving the problems faced by the poor is not my responsibility. 
B. I may have been middle-class, but I was raised in a post-industrial city with a large proportion of poor people, and I saw how they suffered. 
C. I never claimed to understand the problems faced by the poor, but the President has made such a claim. 
D. It is true that I have never been poor, but I have never been as wealthy as the President is, either. 
E. My family was a poor immigrant family as few as fifty years ago. All they have, they earned through their own hard work.

jainu · Answer

I think C. 
Susan says: The president cannot claim that he understands the problems of poor coz he never came back from a poor family.
Paul says to Susan: You are wrong coz you never came from a poor family and hail from a middle class family.

The stat which Susan can make is that she never claims that she understands the problems of poor.

bigoyal · Answer

I'll vote for E.

A. I am not the President, so understanding and solving the problems faced by the poor is not my responsibility.  -If susan don't have any idea about poors, she would not have made the claim about president. 
B. I may have been middle-class, but I was raised in a post-industrial city with a large proportion of poor people, and I saw how they suffered.  -May be President has also stayed in such an area. She is just saying the president is from wealthy family. 
C. I never claimed to understand the problems faced by the poor, but the President has made such a claim.  - Same as problem as in A 
D. It is true that I have never been poor, but I have never been as wealthy as the President is, either.  - We don't know the level of wealth required to understand poors. 
E. My family was a poor immigrant family as few as fifty years ago. All they have, they earned through their own hard work  Correct. Susan has claimed that President is from rich family and Paul has claimed that susan is also from a comfortably middle-class. This means that Paul is putting a question on how wealthy her family is. For which Susan is replying by sayin her family was also very poor sometime back.

aknine · Answer

Another vote for 'E'.

gmatavenue · Answer

OUT

bkumars8 · Answer

It's C for me as well.

tarek99 · Answer

I choose C as my answer choice. Susan was talking about the President, yet Paul chose to talk about Susan to elustrate his point. Whether Susan understands the poor is irrelavant to what she claims about the President.

pmenon · Answer

A final C for me as well .... thats how I wouldve responded if I was Susan, anyways ! 8-)

bigtreezl · Answer

C for me

vesam · Answer

C for me as well

bigoyal · Answer

Now I'm getting confused. The question is asking -
"Which of the following possible responses by Susan would most directly address Paul’s criticism?"

Whereas option C doesn't address Paul's criticism.

Btw, whats the OA ?

gmatavenue · Answer

Paul: Your   reasoning is flawed  . After all, you yourself come from a comfortably middle-class family and have never been poor either.

What reasoning ????
The reasoning is if President is not poor he should not be eligible.

" After all, you yourself come from a comfortably middle-class family and have never been poor either " is just a supportive premise to support his claim.

mbaMission · Answer

OA: C

trainspotting · Answer

C.....Keeping the truth of the original argument and at the same time tacking the issue raised by Paul....Choice C makes the most sense...

sudeep · Answer

Another vote for C.

Susan: The President claims to understand the problems faced

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards