Ambiguity in comparisons

i got this in a PM.

we have a policy of not answering specific questions within PM's (i.e., you need to post your question on the forum itself), but i forgot that this was a private message and so answered it as though it were a real forum post.

therefore, we're going to make a real forum post out of it. |:

vikram4689 wrote:Hi Ron,

Following are some of the sentences from MGMAT SC.
1. The clothes hanging on the racks inside the store looked more appealing than in the store window.

From point of view of Ellipses i think it is correct because clothes are already mentioned in sentence and there is no need to do so again BUT correct sentence introduces "those" after than. Please explain the reason for this.

it doesn't seem that you're paying enough attention to the MEANING of the sentence. if a comparison is ambiguous, then you will need to add words to disambiguate it.

the problem with your sentence #1 here is that we don't know what it means:
a) there are two different sets of clothes -- one set on the racks, and another set in the window -- and the ones on the racks look better?
b) the SAME clothes look better on the racks than in the window?
because both meanings are reasonable, this sentence is genuinely ambiguous; you need to add word(s) to disambiguate it.

Similar problem i encountered with:
2. Julia was able to climb the tree as fast her brother did

you're missing "as" between "as fast" and "her brother"

other than that, i think this sentence is fine without "did" -- there's no ambiguity. i.e., obviously julia is not climbing her brother, so there's only one possible meaning for this sentence.

see verbal supplement problem #38 (about calves) for a correct comparison structured this way. (it's also correct with the helping verb, of course, but the helping verb just isn't necessary.)

3. The blue dress looks more flattering on you than the red one does

same as #2 -- this is not ambiguous, so you don't need "does". however, it's still correct with "does".

Also in one of the sentences i found in MGMAT SC:
Given sentence: The tycoon contributed more to the candidate's campaign than anyone else in the industry

this one seems ambiguous.
a) the tycoon contributed more to the candidate than anyone else contributed to the candidate
b) the tycoon contributed more to the candidate than to anyone else

Is corrected sentence really parallel, it has 2 clauses one uses (noun-verb form) and other uses (verb-noun form). I think following sentence would be correct.
The tycoon contributed more to the candidate's campaign than anyone else in the industry DID.

Please explain.

Regards
Vikram

the parallelism is clause || clause; the clauses don't have to be structured in exactly the same way.

note in particular:

* "verb-noun form" is impossible with ACTION VERBS (i.e., it's impossible to write "contributed" in front of its subject)

* either form is permitted with HELPING VERBS if the SUBJECT IS ALONE OR HAS A SHORT MODIFIER:
i know more about shakespeare than my brother does.
i know more about shakespeare than does my brother.
both correct

* if the subject of the helping verb has long modifier(s) attached to it, then the helping verb goes BEFORE:
When James moved to Argentina, he made more money than did his brothers who still lived in Paraguay --> CORRECT
When James moved to Argentina, he made more money than his brothers who still lived in Paraguay did --> this is not acceptable, because it is totally unreadable -- you'd have to read it three or four times before you had any idea what it meant.