Sentence Correction

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38. According to a recent study, the elderly in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as to receive it from them.

"elderly in the United States are " OK singular plural agreement. No problem in all the answer choices on this front.


(A) the elderly in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as Wrong!!

Whenever we use "more,less, greater" please don't forgot the "than" in the idiom. "More..Than", "Less.. Than", "Greater... Than". Dont forget the "than"


NEXT

(B) the elderly in the United States are four times as likely to give regular financial aid to their children as it is for them

Same problem... "More ...as" is idiomatically incorrect.

Also notice the lack of parallelism . "X are more likely [[to give]] Blah Blah as (should be "than") [[it is for them]]." The bracketed parts of the sentence should be parallel infinitives starting with a "to".

(C) the elderly in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children than

"X are four times as likely [[to give]] BLAH BLAH than to recieve BLAH BLAH."
All the pronouns are correctly referenced. "Their" refers back to parents.

Looks good. Probably correct. Lets continue looking at the other choices.

(D) it is four times more likely for the elderly in the United States to give regular financial aid to their children than they are


hmm passive. "According to a recent study, it is ....." opposed to "According to a recent study, the elderly...". While I prefer the second choice, that doesn't exlude it. So lets continue.

"more ....than" is used. Ok


Aha!! "it is four times more likely for X [[to give]] BLAH BLAH, than [[they are]].
The bracketed parts are not parallel.

Also note "It" in the beginning of the sentence is a pronoun used in the general context. "It" is not referring to anything specific, as "It is clear who will win the game". "It" is correctly used. BUT! notice the construction and flow with the passive usage of "it".

"it is four times more likely " or "the elderly are four times more likely".
The latter is more clear and more active.

NEXT!!!

(E) it is four times as likely that the elderly in the United States will give their children regular financial aid as they are

Same problem as in (D). Passive voice, the use of "it is four times more likely " vs "the elderly are four times more likely".

The usage of "will" is incorrect. Lets rearrange for a second and make this incorrect sentence active to see if "will" works in the sentence.

"the elderly are four times as likely will give ... fiancial aid"??

Or better yet

"the elderly are four times as likely to give ... fiancial aid"??

The infinitive works better here. So we can cross this answer for sure.


The correct answer is (C).

IMO C
On comparison sentences, always decide 1st about "THINGS THAT ARE COMPARED". Ignore the fluff in between. Once you are sure , move on to find other issues. It took me 1:03 sec to pick an answer.(I am relatively happier now, because comparison questions used to through me off in the past.Not any more!!!)

One more thing you will notice here are idioms - more than Vs ..As X As Y.
A is out!

Time to look out for proper comparison:

According to a recent study, the elderly in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as to receive it from them.
(A) the elderly in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as
(B) the elderly in the United States are four times as likely to give regular financial aid to their children as it is for them (X and Y are not parallel/structures are different )
(C) the elderly in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children than
(D) it is four times more likely for the elderly in the United States to give regular financial aid to their children than they are (Action compared to pronoun- not kool!)
(E) it is four times as likely that the elderly in the United States will give their children regular financial aid as they are (Action compared to pronoun- not kool!)