Mo2men wrote:Dear GMATGuru,
1- There 'higher...than' must compare clauses but it seems there is an ellipsis. Is the following correct:
Carbon emissions will soar to a level that is more than one-third higher than was the level in 1990 .
Since the red portion refers to the FUTURE -- the expected level in 2010 -- the verb should be in the future tense:
a level that WILL BE more than one-third higher than was the level in 1990
2- If the above correct, why is 'that' used?
From context, we know that
a level refers to
the expected level of carbon emissions in 2010.
Since the intent is to compare TWO DIFFERENT LEVELS --
the level of carbon emissions in 2010 versus
the level of carbon emissions in 1990 -- the OA uses a copy pronoun (
that) to refer to the second level:
a level more than one-third higher than THAT in 1990
while not used in your famous example 'The company had higher profits in 1990 than in 1980.'?
Here, we are comparing not two different levels but two ACTIONS:
What the company HAD in 1990 is compared to what the company HAD in 1980.
Implied comparison:
The company HAD higher profits in 1990 than the company HAD profits in 1980.
Since we are not comparing two different types of profit, no copy pronoun such as
those is required.
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