Sentence Correction

Interest in asteroid Schiela has increased, ever since observations by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey have revealed that the asteroid is twice as bright as previously thought.
(A) twice as bright as
(B) twice as bright as they
(C) two times as bright than
(D) twice as bright as was
(E) two times as bright than was

Please discuss.

Twice is only used with adverb and is more appropriate in this statement.
So, C and E fails

B, (They) - wrong usage

mixed with A and D, IMO:D

IMO A

Interest in asteroid Schiela has increased, ever since observations by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey have revealed that the asteroid is twice as bright as previously thought.
(A) twice as bright as => Correct. Here I assume "it was" is understood & hence omitted.
(B) twice as bright as they => they has no referent
(C) two times as bright than => incorrect
(D) twice as bright as was => missing "it" (although I'm not so sure here.)
(E) two times as bright than was => incorrect

Whats is OA? Can an expert please verify my reasoning here?

Thanks...

dadu wrote:Interest in asteroid Schiela has increased, ever since observations by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey have revealed that the asteroid is twice as bright as previously thought.
(A) twice as bright as
(B) twice as bright as they
(C) two times as bright than
(D) twice as bright as was
(E) two times as bright than was

Please discuss.

Tough one between A and D but I would have gone for option D because I thought of maintaining parallelism between simple present and simple past i.e asteroid is // was previously thought.......

Looking for expert comments......

In B , had they been a valid pronoun , would B still have been wrong ?
as they previously thought

sumgb wrote:IMO A

Interest in asteroid Schiela has increased, ever since observations by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey have revealed that the asteroid is twice as bright as previously thought.
(A) twice as bright as => Correct. Here I assume "it was" is understood & hence omitted.
(B) twice as bright as they => they has no referent
(C) two times as bright than => incorrect
(D) twice as bright as was => missing "it" (although I'm not so sure here.)
(E) two times as bright than was => incorrect

Whats is OA? Can an expert please verify my reasoning here?

Thanks...

Hi,
I am not expert. But, I feel A is incorrect.
Best option would be: asteroid is twice as bright as (people/scientists) previously thought.
So, I guess there needs to be a noun before previously thought.
Coming to D, as the active construction is not there, D gives a passive construction
asteroid is twice as bright as was previously thought (by people/scientists). Removing 'by people/scientists' is not going to be incorrect as it is a passive construction. So, I think answer should be D.

In B , had they been a valid pronoun , would B still have been wrong ?

I guess my post answers this as well. If there is a valid noun before 'previously thought', B will be correct.

Please post the OA.

Frankenstein
(B) twice as bright as they

The SC is

that the asteroid is twice as bright as previously thought

if u substitute C
we get
that the asteroid is twice as bright as they previously thought

Doesnt the verb " thought " require an object here because we are comparing the actual size of the asteroid with the size that they previously thought

if u substitute C
we get
that the asteroid is twice as bright as they previously thought

You mean B right?
B is wrong because 'they' has no referent as one of the posters has already mentioned.

Doesnt the verb " thought " require an object here because we are comparing the actual size of the asteroid with the size that they previously thought

Sorry, I didn't clearly understand your question. I guess you are talking about the ellipsis part?Anyway, the construction is a valid one. You can see Q-13, OG-12 :
A surge in new home sales and a drop in weekly unemployment claims suggest that the economy might not be as weak as some analysts previously thought.

Frankenstein wrote:

if u substitute C
we get
that the asteroid is twice as bright as they previously thought

You mean B right?
B is wrong because 'they' has no referent as one of the posters has already mentioned.

Doesnt the verb " thought " require an object here because we are comparing the actual size of the asteroid with the size that they previously thought

Sorry, I didn't clearly understand your question. I guess you are talking about the ellipsis part?Anyway, the construction is a valid one. You can see Q-13, OG-12 :
A surge in new home sales and a drop in weekly unemployment claims suggest that the economy might not be as weak as some analysts previously thought.

LOL How do u manage to remember the SCs according to the concept being tested .

really need explanation from experts here. Thanks...

sumgb wrote:really need explanation from experts here. Thanks...

You have to PM an Expert for this

mundasingh123 wrote: LOL How do u manage to remember the SCs according to the concept being tested.

Fortunately, I have come across this OG question today.

IMO D

I think 'was' is required..
as bright as construction needs to be parallel..

so,
X as bright as Y.. in this X and Y need to be parallel..
X is in present tense (asteroid is) and Y is in past (previously).. so we need 'was' in Y... otherwise, present tense (is) in X would apply to Y as well. We don't want it to happen obviously.

OA is indeed D.

need720+ has given perfect explanation.