Heating-oil prices

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vivekvijayan: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 33; Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2013 7:35 am

by vivekvijayan » Tue Oct 28, 2014 11:30 pm

Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher th is year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were last year.

(A) Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were
(8) Heating-oil prices are expected to rise higher this year over last because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did
(C) Expectations are for heating-oil prices to be higher this year than last year's because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did
(d) It is the expectation that heating-oil prices will be higher for this year over last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil now than what they were
(E) It is expected that heating-oil prices will rise higher this year than last year's because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did

OA A
I choose E as I thought the the comparison in A was incorrect. A compares Heating oil prices with an year. Pls explain this.

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Oct 28, 2014 11:30 pm

iongmat: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 193; Joined: Tue May 24, 2011 5:14 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 6 times

by iongmat » Wed Oct 29, 2014 2:27 am

A's like this: Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than (Heating-oil prices were) last (year).

E anyway changes the meaning completely, since it says how much the prices "rose" not how much the prices "are/were".

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Wed Oct 29, 2014 3:13 am

vivekvijayan wrote:I thought the the comparison in A was incorrect. A compares Heating oil prices with an year. Pls explain this.

Generally, parallel forms in a comparison serve the SAME FUNCTION.

Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last [year].
In the OA, the word in brackets is omitted, but its presence is understood.
Here, last year (modifier) is clearly parallel with this year (modifier).
Since this year serves as an adverb indicating when prices are expected to be higher, last year must play a similar role.
The resulting comparison is clear and logical: how prices are expected to be higher this year is being compared to how prices were high last year.

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