Sentence Correction

Despite the recent election of a woman to the office of prime minister, the status of women in Pakistan is little changed from how it was in the last century.

(A) is little changed from how it was
(B) is a little change from how it was
(C) has changed little
(D) has changed little from how it has been
(E) is little changed from the way it was

While the popular opinion about this question is C, I am finding C illogical.
Firstly it talks about something that has the effect until now and then compares it to a state of the past.C would have made full sense, had the last words been in the present century.
Secondly, it distorts the meaning of the original sentence. The sentence is trying to compare the status of women in this century to the status of women in the last century.
C totally eats up this comparison and says somethign else.
How can this possible be the correct choice then.

D, on the other hand, keeps the meaning intact and conveys the right message.

Can someone clarify this issue heere.

I think option C should ideally be "has changed little from how it was".
D is not definitely not right. You should probably not rack your brains
about this question.

HTH

I think "Changed" itself signifies the comparison of current century to last. So, C is concise and correct.

dhonu121 wrote:Despite the recent election of a woman to the office of prime minister, the status of women in Pakistan is little changed from how it was in the last century.

(A) is little changed from how it was
(B) is a little change from how it was
(C) has changed little
(D) has changed little from how it has been
(E) is little changed from the way it was

While the popular opinion about this question is C, I am finding C illogical.
Firstly it talks about something that has the effect until now and then compares it to a state of the past.C would have made full sense, had the last words been in the present century.
Secondly, it distorts the meaning of the original sentence. The sentence is trying to compare the status of women in this century to the status of women in the last century.
C totally eats up this comparison and says somethign else.
How can this possible be the correct choice then.

D, on the other hand, keeps the meaning intact and conveys the right message.

Can someone clarify this issue heere.

D is wrong, has changed little from how it has been in the last century
instead of has, had shud come..coz its talking about last centure, past tense, correct me if m wrong..

Agree with karthikgmat's explanation. Indeed, his explanation is also concise and correct. D is wrong for the second 'has'.

Given the 5 choices in the exam, I will pick C. Having said that,
C changes the meaning of the sentence (as per me), and I can not
agree with Karthik's explanation. If we are talking about last
century and current century, last century is past and hence the
construction, I feel, is wrong. "status of women changed little
in last century" is what I would use to indicate a past.

HTH

vk_vinayak wrote:Agree with karthikgmat's explanation. Indeed, his explanation is also concise and correct. D is wrong for the second 'has'.

The meaning here "change of status of women in previous century to current century" . Isn't it?

If its so Changed should itself convey the meaning .

Alter from value X to value Y -> changed little .(in this case)

What's wrong with option A?

IMHO, A is wordy.
Option C clearly conveys the meaning clearly and concisely.
Option D however distorts the original meaning of sentence and creates ambiguity.

Here sentence requires present perfect tense indicating process started somewhere in past and still continues.