gmat_perfect wrote:According to a new report by the surgeon general, women with less than a high school education had three times the likelihood that they would begin smoking as women who went to college.

(A) had three times the likelihood that they would begin smoking
(B) had three times the likelihood of beginning smoking
(C) were three times more likely to begin to smoke
(D) were three times more likely that they would begin to smoke
(E) were three times as likely to begin smoking

[spoiler]OA: Later[/spoiler]

Here is a nifty trick in this one which tests the detailed reading skills of a test taker. The "as" in the non underlined section is tucked but is a giveaway that the underlined part should have an "as".
There are other errors as well, the use of "had" is unnecessary as a simple past like "were" would do just fine. Finally for the rule oriented folks, "X is three times as good / fast etc. as" is the correct way of comparing when multiplication is involved, another approach is "thrice his size ....." in this case DO NOT use "as .........as" it is wrong.

Coming to the question at hand:
Eliminating by the "as" rule above - only E remains. Further simple past is correctly used in E.

[spoiler]Hence pick E[/spoiler]

gmat_perfect wrote:Arpita,

Thanks for your explanation.

I have a question. I was searching for the same type of questions. I have found almost same types of sentence, which as follows.

Women with only 9 to 11 years of education are about three times as likely to be smokers as are women with a college education.

My question: In this sentence, the writer has retain "are", but in our sc problem "are" has not been used. Would you please explain why?

Thanks.

@gmat_perfect - Good question

Let us take the a simple parallelism.

Ramon likes to read, to play and to watch movies.

Ramon likes to read, play and watch movies.

Both are correct, the "to" in the above sentences can be equated to "are" in your question. GMAT should not have a question which gives both the above as choices (Ramon example) but in the freaky case it does, choose the latter (post edited here earlier it said former) due to conciseness.

There is one more layer to this one though - style.

Read:
Women with only 9 to 11 years of education are about three times as likely to be smokers as are women with a college education.
Now read:
Women with only 9 to 11 years of education are about three times as likely to be smokers as women with a college education.

This does not 'ring' so well to the ear, without the "are" the second sentence does not flow. However, look at the sentences below:
According to a new report by the surgeon general, women with less than a high school education were three times as likely to begin smoking as women who went to college.
Compare
According to a new report by the surgeon general, women with less than a high school education were three times as likely to begin smoking as were women who went to college.

Both the above 'sound' correct with the first having a slight edge.

Thus the best answer here is it depends. Sometimes style may dictate one type of formation over the other. When in doubt try to 'sound' out such answers the one that 'rings' true to the ear is usually the correct one.

Hope this helps