Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now

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Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than a year ago and are going down, even though floods I the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised corn and soybean prices.

A: than a year ago and are going down, even though floods I the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised
B: than those of a year ago, and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raising
C: than a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising
D: as those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south hurt crops and therefore raise
E: as they were a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising


Can't we say Prices are higher NOW than LAST YEAR?

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Sun Aug 02, 2015 11:39 am

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No, because then you are comparing PRICES to LAST YEAR. What you want to compare is PRICES to LAST YEAR'S PRICES.
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by OptimusPrep » Sun Aug 02, 2015 8:05 pm

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No, we have to compare prices with prices and not the time.

"Prices are higher now that they were last year" is correct
The thing to be compared after "than" should be logically comparable.

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by gmatdriller » Mon Aug 03, 2015 2:14 am

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OptimusPrep wrote:No, we have to compare prices with prices and not the time.

"Prices are higher now that they were last year" is correct
The thing to be compared after "than" should be logically comparable.
Agreed, after THAN we have "a year ago"
But "a year ago" -on the right- has a parallel counterpart with "now" on the left.

So, is it the same as saying:
NOW, prices are higher than A YEAR AGO.

I know we are comparing prices between 2 different periods-and not the periods themselves.

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by swamitata » Tue Aug 18, 2015 11:01 pm

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https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... 0.html[url]

Please refer this URL. In this Ron has said that the following line is correct :

" Heating prices will rise higher this year than last " . Here we are comparing this year and last year. On the similar lines we can say that in the above question we are comparing " now " with " a year ago ". Am I Correct ? Please help.[/url]

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by Janewq » Tue Sep 01, 2015 12:23 am

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swamitata wrote:https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... 0.html[url]

Please refer this URL. In this Ron has said that the following line is correct :

" Heating prices will rise higher this year than last " . Here we are comparing this year and last year. On the similar lines we can say that in the above question we are comparing " now " with " a year ago ". Am I Correct ? Please help.[/url]
I am also confused about " Price are higher now than a year ago." and " Price will rise higher this year than last." Those two sentences are same, so they are both wrong???? Please help......

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by swamitata » Tue Apr 12, 2016 2:42 am

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Experts .. Please reply.

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by [email protected] » Sat Apr 06, 2019 10:23 am

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Hello Everyone!

This is a great example of a sentence that focuses on idiom structure and comparisons! Let's start by taking a quick look over each option, and highlight any major differences in orange:

Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised corn and soybean prices.

(A) than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised
(B) than those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raising
(C) than a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising
(D) as those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south hurt crops and therefore raise
(E) as they were a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising

After a quick glance over the options, a few key differences jump out:

1. than vs. as (idiom structure)
2. a year ago / those of a year ago / they were a year ago (parallelism with comparisons)
3. even though / despite (transitions)
4. raised / raising / raise (verb tense)

Let's start with #1 on our list: than vs. as. No matter which one we choose, it will eliminate 2-3 options rather quickly, so let's start there. This is an issue of idiom structure. Whenever we see comparative language (in this case, the word "higher"), we know that the sentence is comparing two items and must be worded a certain way:

X is higher than Y = CORRECT
X is higher as Y = WRONG

Let's see which options do this correctly, and eliminate the ones that do not:

(A) than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised
(B) than those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raising
(C) than a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising
(D) as those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south hurt crops and therefore raise
(E) as they were a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising

We can eliminate options D & E because they don't follow the proper "X is higher than Y" idiom structure. That was easy!

Now, let's move on to #2 on our list: parallelism with comparisons. Whenever we compare two items by using the idiom structure "X is higher than Y," the X and Y in the idiom need to be parallel. Let's look at the original sentence closely to determine what two items it's comparing:

Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised corn and soybean prices.

We can see that the sentence should compare the prices today versus prices from a year ago. Let's make sure each option compares similar things:

(A) than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised

This is INCORRECT because it compares the prices today to a year ago, which isn't parallel. You cannot compare prices to years - they're not the same thing!

(B) than those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raising

This is CORRECT! The word "those" clearly refers to prices, so this is comparing the prices today to the prices from last year, which is parallel!

(C) than a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising

This is also INCORRECT because it compares prices to years, which aren't parallel items.


There you have it - option B is the correct choice! It's the only one that compares two like items, and it uses the correct idiom structure for comparisons!


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by vietnam47 » Fri Aug 16, 2019 9:11 am

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what about the following. "that in..." is wong. because it is inferior or because it is wrong
pls explained.
thanks

Most of the country's biggest daily newspapers had lower circulation in the six months from October 1995 through March 1996 than a similar period a year earlier.


(A) a similar period

(B) a similar period's

(C) in a similar period

(D) that in a similar period

(E) that of a similar period