Q5 - The mayor claims she has

[ericha3535]

I believe I get the argument:

Challenger: Hey, you promise an increase of 8% employment. I concede that this has occurred yet this has occurred due to "new comers." 8% did not occur among those who have lived here.

Mayor: Hey, calm down. Who cares? 8% is still an attractive number.

Mayor is definitely trolling here, not answering challenger's answer: which is why C is true.

Not sure about E though; as a matter of fact, I don't think I am accurately understanding it. Is it saying that the Mayor is claiming that the belief that the challenger holds was never mentioned or implied by his argument?
In other words,
Mayor is saying: "Hey, you are claiming A, but your argument never implied or asserted A!"

[maryadkins]

Bingo! Well played.

As for the wrong answer choices and to address your question about (E):

(A) "takes for granted" means assumes, and the mayor doesn't assume this; he/she claims it outright.

(B) is not a flaw here--the mayor concedes that there are still unemployed people around and neither the challenger or mayor gets into what the rate of unemployment is. Their dispute is about the rise in employment and what that number means.

(D) is wrong because the challenger does not argue this.

(E) is wrong because the mayor doesn't say this (and what I mean is, the mayor does not ever give the challenger a belief that the challenger didn't assert, which would be doing something like saying, "You just claimed that I'm a horrible person!" when the challenger never said such a thing).

[frank0478]

This is a red herring?