Sentence Correction

Employment costs rose 2.8 percent in the 12 months that ended in September, slightly less than they did in the year that ended in the previous quarter.

(A) less than they did
(B) less than it did
(C) less than they were
(D) lower than
(E) lower than they were

OA: [spoiler]A: Would it have been correct to say "lower than they did" as well?[/spoiler]

i think "lower" would have been correct here, since we are comparing the same entity, "rise of employment costs" over a period of time, but lets see what experts have to say.

Hi,

I think the answer should be A.

this is comparison Question:

employment costs ROSE by 1.2% in 12 months...., slightly less than
they did in the year...!

employment costs <--> they
Rose by 1.2% <---> did

no other option shows the good comparison.

sunnyjohn wrote:Hi,

I think the answer should be A.

this is comparison Question:

employment costs ROSE by 1.2% in 12 months...., slightly less than
they did in the year...!

employment costs <--> they
Rose by 1.2% <---> did

no other option shows the good comparison.

Agreed - this is what I realized after I posted. All the other answer choices compare the action to something else (i.e. state of being).

I think there are 2 way to write

costs rose less than they did

or

cost rose 2.8%, lower than the percent is

in the first we compare verb, in the second we compare percent number. because d have no second compared element, D is wrong

pls. help me, is my thinking correct?

duongthang wrote:I think there are 2 way to write

costs rose less than they did

or

cost rose 2.8%, lower than the percent is

in the first we compare verb, in the second we compare percent number. because d have no second compared element, D is wrong

pls. help me, is my thinking correct?

Hard to say without the context of the sentence. Write out the whole sentence for both scenarios, so we can see your thinking in action.

cbenk121,

I am refering to this question. Pls, help answer my following question

if I change the sentence to ",lower than the percent is"

is this correct?,

cbenk121 wrote:

duongthang wrote:I think there are 2 way to write

costs rose less than they did

or

cost rose 2.8%, lower than the percent is

in the first we compare verb, in the second we compare percent number. because d have no second compared element, D is wrong

pls. help me, is my thinking correct?

Hard to say without the context of the sentence. Write out the whole sentence for both scenarios, so we can see your thinking in action.

Ok, pls, tell me whether the 2 following sentences are correct?

costs rose 2.8% this year, less than they did last year

costs rose 2.8% this year, lower than the percent is last year

--"Lower" is the comparative of "low," so it should only be applied to things that could be described as low.

The average temperature is lower in the winter than in the summer.
Lower the water level in the pool by pulling the drain plug.

Ok, pls, tell me whether the 2 following sentences are correct?

costs rose 2.8% this year, less than they did last year

costs rose 2.8% this year, lower than the percent is last year

First of all, it would need to be "percent WAS", since it's referring to an event in the past.

Outside of that, the comparison doesn't make that much sense to me. The percentages here represent degree of change, which is tied to the verb.

Let's say costs rose 4% last year. The most logical comparison is comparing how much costs rose this year versus last year. If you just compare 4% to 2.8%, that doesn't make any sense because there's no context. Did they rise? Fall? Or are the percentages referring to some percentage of a whole (i.e. employee costs made up 4% of the total budget last year, but now comprise 2.8%).

@Brick: Do you have a source for that? My gut agrees with you, but also thinking costs could be described as low, IF low can be used to describe anything relatively. If use of "lower" s strictly limited to things that can be physically lower (i.e. thermometer, water level), then no, lower can't be used here.