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psychiatric studies

by kanha81 » Wed May 27, 2009 12:25 pm
Some psychiatric studies indicate that among distinguished artists the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times as prevalent as in the population at large.

(A) the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times as prevalent as in
(B) the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times more prevalent than in
(C) the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times more prevalent when compared to
(D) manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times as prevalent when compared to
(E) manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times more prevalent than in

I understand that the idiom used must be "more x than y", but how is [spoiler][E][/spoiler] OA? Please explain.

Thanks.
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by ket » Wed May 27, 2009 1:22 pm
Well, IMO N1 thing to figure out is that "rates of...are prevalent" is incorrect. (it did not occur to me at first glance but was clear after i read the answers), the correct way of saying the meaning is - "manic depression and major depression are prevalent." . On the other hand one could say "high rates of..." are prevalent .. but this choice is not in the answers. Simply "rates of...' without mentioning what kind of rates is incorrect.

this leaves us with D and E.

D is easily dismissed because it is clear that the sentence needs the word "more"... it makes no sense to say "10 times as prevalent as" the expression is " x times more than." that made me arrive at E.

I don't know if my explanation is easy to understand :) hope it sheds some light :)[/i]
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Re: psychiatric studies

by gmatjem » Wed May 27, 2009 3:39 pm
kanha81 wrote:Some psychiatric studies indicate that among distinguished artists the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times as prevalent as in the population at large.

(A) the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times as prevalent as in
(B) the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times more prevalent than in
(C) the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times more prevalent when compared to
(D) manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times as prevalent when compared to
(E) manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times more prevalent than in

I understand that the idiom used must be "more x than y", but how is [spoiler][E][/spoiler] OA? Please explain.

Thanks.
The rates - can't be prevalent ( it doesn't make any sense ) so A,B and C can be knocked off.

Between D and E, D is verbose and E holds good.

Ans : E.

Let me know the OA.
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by nervesofsteel » Wed May 27, 2009 11:08 pm
more X than Y is the correct idiom...

Also "rates" cannot be prevalent.. instead depression can be prevalent ..

Thus E
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Re: psychiatric studies

by California4jx » Thu May 28, 2009 11:51 am
kanha81 wrote:Some psychiatric studies indicate that among distinguished artists the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times as prevalent as in the population at large.

(A) the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times as prevalent as in
(B) the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times more prevalent than in
(C) the rates of manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times more prevalent when compared to
(D) manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times as prevalent when compared to
(E) manic depression and major depression are ten to thirteen times more prevalent than in

I understand that the idiom used must be "more x than y", but how is [spoiler][E][/spoiler] OA? Please explain.

Thanks.
Its a comparison question. Since 'the rates' is the subject of the underline wrong sentence ... the comparison was not made with the rate in the large population .. also, in the entire sentence, the subject is distinguished artist which are compared with population at large, therefore, if u remove the rates and just include manic depression and major depression ... then that makes the comparison of artist with population ... which is right ... [E] does all that.
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by The GMAT Chef » Thu May 28, 2009 12:39 pm
ket wrote:Well, IMO N1 thing to figure out is that "rates of...are prevalent" is incorrect. (it did not occur to me at first glance but was clear after i read the answers), the correct way of saying the meaning is - "manic depression and major depression are prevalent." . On the other hand one could say "high rates of..." are prevalent .. but this choice is not in the answers. Simply "rates of...' without mentioning what kind of rates is incorrect.

this leaves us with D and E.

D is easily dismissed because it is clear that the sentence needs the word "more"... it makes no sense to say "10 times as prevalent as" the expression is " x times more than." that made me arrive at E.

I don't know if my explanation is easy to understand :) hope it sheds some light :)[/i]
Watch out Ket!

Everything in your explanation is correct except this: "D is easily dismissed because it is clear that the sentence needs the word "more"... it makes no sense to say "10 times as prevalent as" the expression is " x times more than." that made me arrive at E."

You can say " 10 times as prevalent as" and you can also say "10 times more prevalent than". All depends what you're trying to say:

Assume you have 100 items.
"10 times as great as.." means you have 1000 items.
"10 times greater than... " means you have 1100 items.

D) is wrong because of "when compared to", which violates the idiom here and the parallel structure of the sentence.

Replacing "when compared to" with "as" would make D) correct but you cannot have two correct answers, can you?
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