Jatinder wrote:Q) In the 1980's the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice as fast as the 1970's.
(A) twice as fast as
(B) twice as fast as it was in
(C) twice what it was in
(D) two times faster than that of
(E) two times greater than
[spoiler]OA is C
Doubt: Twice is adverb; In C, isn't it acting as an adjective[/spoiler]
hmm. i'm not even sure how to label "twice" formally as a part of speech in this sort of instance, but "X is twice Y", where X and Y are both nouns, is
extremely common usage.
in this case, it seems as though "twice" is acting as an adjective, and yes, my dictionary says it's an adverb. but "X is twice Y" is definitely considered correct.
i'm not sure whether this is an official problem, but, even if it isn't, there are similar usages in official problems i've seen: "twice the figure for...", etc.
you may just want to memorize this as a particular allowed construction, without trying too hard to stick labels on it. remember that it doesn't matter whether you can label words correctly (as parts of speech, etc.); all that matters is that you can tell which constructions are right and which are wrong.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.
--
Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi
--
Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.
Yves Saint-Laurent
--
Learn more about ron