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The number of vehicles on the road

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The number of vehicles on the road

by umeshpatil » Sat Nov 10, 2012 4:29 am
The number of vehicles on the road classified as "light trucks" in the United States increased by more than twice from 1980 to 1992.

a)increased by more than twice

B)increased more than two times

C)more than doubled

D)was more than doubled

E)had more than doubled
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by naveenchandra kv » Sat Nov 10, 2012 4:41 am
Hi,

IMO-- Correct Answer is D.

In options A and B, Increase and more are used-- which are redundant.

In option C-- there is no verb for the subject, "The Number of Trucks"

In option E-- had is unnecessary as there is no sequence of events here.

So the correct option is D which introduces the verb "was" for the subject and corrects the redundancy error and past tense is correctly used as we are talking of something that happened before.

Hope it helps.
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by umeshpatil » Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:40 am
Naveenchandra, thanks for your justification.

I am agreed with your answer. but OA is C (provided by Veritas)

Correct Answer: C

Explanation: In answer choice A, "twice," an adverb, is incorrectly used as the object of the preposition "by." Answer choice B introduces ambiguity by implying that the number of vehicles increased on more than two separate occasions, which does not make very much sense. Answer choice D uses the passive voice and suggests some unnamed agent (who did the doubling.) Answer choice E incorrectly uses the past perfect tense (had). "Had" is only used when verbs within the same sentence refer to different time periods. Because there is only one verb in this sentence, there is no use for the verb "had." The correct answer choice is C, which succinctly expresses the growth.


Please, let me know your view on this.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Nov 11, 2012 4:57 am
Hey guys!

Choice C is correct and I knew that instinctively, but I has to think as to why. The "more than" is used as a adverb in this sentence and can modify the verb "doubled."

You would certainly accept the sentence "The number (of vehicles) doubled last year." With "doubled" as the verb. And if we said "the number quickly doubled" you would accept quickly as an adverb. "More than" is used in the same way.

If the amount doubled, we would say "doubled" but since it actually went to more than double, it "more than doubled."

Just for the reference to choice D, you would never say that a number or an amount "was more than doubled." For example you would never say "My cat's weight was more than doubled over the past year." Since doubled is already the verb the "was" actually gets in the way.

Does that help?
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