Hello Everyone!
This is a great example of a sentence that focuses on idiom structure and comparisons! Let's start by taking a quick look over each option, and highlight any major differences in orange:
Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised corn and soybean prices.
(A) than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised
(B) than those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raising
(C) than a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising
(D) as those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south hurt crops and therefore raise
(E) as they were a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising
After a quick glance over the options, a few key differences jump out:
1. than vs. as (idiom structure)
2. a year ago / those of a year ago / they were a year ago (parallelism with comparisons)
3. even though / despite (transitions)
4. raised / raising / raise (verb tense)
Let's start with #1 on our list: than vs. as. No matter which one we choose, it will eliminate 2-3 options rather quickly, so let's start there. This is an issue of idiom structure. Whenever we see comparative language (in this case, the word "higher"), we know that the sentence is comparing two items and must be worded a certain way:
X is higher than Y = CORRECT
X is higher as Y = WRONG
Let's see which options do this correctly, and eliminate the ones that do not:
(A) than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised
(B) than those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raising
(C) than a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising
(D) as those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south hurt crops and therefore raise
(E) as they were a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising
We can eliminate options D & E because they don't follow the proper "X is higher than Y" idiom structure. That was easy!
Now, let's move on to #2 on our list: parallelism with comparisons. Whenever we compare two items by using the idiom structure "X is higher than Y," the X and Y in the idiom need to be parallel. Let's look at the original sentence closely to determine what two items it's comparing:
Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised corn and soybean prices.
We can see that the sentence should compare the prices today versus prices from a year ago. Let's make sure each option compares similar things:
(A) than a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raised
This is INCORRECT because it compares the prices today to a year ago, which isn't parallel. You cannot compare prices to years - they're not the same thing!
(B) than those of a year ago and are going down, even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the south are hurting crops and therefore raising
This is CORRECT! The word "those" clearly refers to prices, so this is comparing the prices today to the prices from last year, which is parallel!
(C) than a year ago and are going down, despite floods in the Midwest and drought in the south, and are hurting crops and therefore raising
This is also INCORRECT because it compares prices to years, which aren't parallel items.
There you have it - option B is the correct choice! It's the only one that compares two like items, and it uses the correct idiom structure for comparisons!
Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
