The reason A is wrong is because of the comparison. In choice A the comparison is made between the work of short fiction and something else. Read it like this:

The work...reflects characteristic interests...as much as the intellectual ferment...(does).

Just where is the comparison there? Is it in the work? Maybe. Or maybe its something entirely different. or maybe he is trying to compare the work with the ferment and reassessments of Black culture and he forgot to add a verb.

What he is trying to say is that the work reflects the interest as much as the work reflects the ferment and reassessments. By adding the "it does" the sentence is now telling you that the comparison is being made between what exactly the work reflects.

The other choices can all be eliminated because of tense issues.

Koala wrote:The work of short fiction writer Charles Chesnutt reflects characteristic interests of his contemporary "local colorists" as much as the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century.


A) as much as the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century

B) as much as it did the intellectual ferment in, and historical reassessments of, Black American culture in the late 19th century

C) as much as it had reflected, during the late 19th century, the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture

D) as much as it was reflective and characteristic of the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture

E) as much as it does the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture


This is a Kaplan question, from the free GMAT test.
OA is E

My question is why A is not correct?

It's wrong for the same reason the GMAT wouldn't want Bob likes Carol as much as Alice, which can mean either:
Bob likes Carol as much as Alice does.
Bob likes Carol as much as he likes Alice.

Thanks a lot.

So "as much as" is always followed with a verb when the comparison is between two "actions".

Jim@Grockit wrote:

Koala wrote:The work of short fiction writer Charles Chesnutt reflects characteristic interests of his contemporary "local colorists" as much as the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century.


A) as much as the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century

B) as much as it did the intellectual ferment in, and historical reassessments of, Black American culture in the late 19th century

C) as much as it had reflected, during the late 19th century, the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture

D) as much as it was reflective and characteristic of the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture

E) as much as it does the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture


This is a Kaplan question, from the free GMAT test.
OA is E

My question is why A is not correct?

It's wrong for the same reason the GMAT wouldn't want Bob likes Carol as much as Alice, which can mean either:
Bob likes Carol as much as Alice does.
Bob likes Carol as much as he likes Alice.

@ Jim: How these two Q have the same meanings??!!! Can you plz elaborate it?

The work of short fiction writer Charles Chesnutt reflects characteristic interests of his contemporary "local colorists" as much as the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century.

A) as much as [It lacks a helping verb ]the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century

=> It lacks a subject and helping verb--it does

B) as much as it did the intellectual ferment in, and historical reassessments of, Black American culture in the late 19th century

=> It changes the intended meaning of the sentence.

C) as much as it had reflected, during the late 19th century, the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture

=> It changes the intended meaning of the sentence.

D) as much as it was reflective and characteristic of the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture

=> "Was" is not parallel with "reflects", the main verb.

E) as much as it does the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture

The skeleton of the sentence:

The work reflects characteristic interests of his contemporary "local colorists (X)" as much as the intellectual ferment (Y) and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century.(Z)

The work reflects X as much as Y and Z.

We can imagine the variations of the sentence in the following ways:

The work in 2000 reflects X as much as it did Y and Z in 1990.

But when we speak about the "work of X", we mean all the work irrespective of publishing years. Since "work" means all the work as whole, we can assume that there will be a parallelism of tense. If we narrate the event in present tense, both the part of the comparison MUST be in present tense.

So, it will be as follows:

The work reflects X as much as it does Y and Z.

Comparison:
COMPARISON MUST be parallel:

1. Subject verb Vs Subject Verb:

Example:
He runs more quickly than Karim does.

Runs =does : Verb parallelism

2. Preposition Vs Preposition:

Example:
I can work more in office than at home.

3. Subject Vs Subject:

Rahim is taller than Karim.
Rahim =Karim: Subject Parallelism

We need to mention the helping verb in the following cases:

a> IF there is ambiguity without HELPING VERB:

I like John more than Srini.

=> It has two meanings:

Meaning ONE: I like John more than Srini does.
Means: I like John. Srini likes John. I like John more than Srini does.

Meaning TWO: I like John more than I like Srini.
Meaning: I like John. I like Srini.

Conclusion: We should mention helping verb in the second half if there is ambiguity without helping verb.

b> If there is a tense shift:

Example:
The price of rice is 20% more this year than last year.

It is not correct because what happened in the last year MUST be in past tense.

We should use past indicator helping verb.

The price of rice is 20% more this year than it was last year.

Thanks.

thanks man for such a comprehensive explanation, you really help all of us here. Don't stop.

See:

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