svishal1123 wrote:A survey by the National Council of Churches showed that in 1986 there were 20,736 female ministers, almost 9 percent of the nation's clergy, twice as much as 1977.

A. twice as much as 1977
B. twice as many as 1977
C. double what it was in 1977
D. double the figure for 1977
E. a number double that of 1977's

A, B, E are clearly wrong. I came up with C which was incorrect because of awkward, wordy and unclear. OA is D. Can somebody please explain. Thanks is advance.

C - Has a pronoun ambiguity problem. The 'it' in the sentence could refer to "National Council of Churches" or "nation's clergy".
D - Clearly states that the figure doubled.

I would have liked D to be constructed a bit more clearer, but I am sure the GMAT wants to test our ability to find mistakes rather than like the construction of the sentences. The 'for 1977' comparision to me in unheard. Any explanation on this?

ex: I served more than 200hrs of my personal time with the under privileged in 2008, double the figure for 2007

vs

ex: I served more than 200hrs of my personal time with the under privileged in 2008, double the figure it was in 2007

I like the second comparision. The 'it' clearly refers to the figure & so there is no ambiguity.

svishal1123 wrote:A survey by the National Council of Churches showed that in 1986 there were 20,736 female ministers, almost 9 percent of the nation's clergy, twice as much as 1977.

A. twice as much as 1977
B. twice as many as 1977
C. double what it was in 1977
D. double the figure for 1977
E. a number double that of 1977's





A, B, E are clearly wrong. I came up with C which was incorrect because of awkward, wordy and unclear. OA is D. Can somebody please explain. Thanks is advance.

svishal1123, can you please explain why B,E are incorrect?

What is the problem with B here?

franciskyle wrote:What is the problem with B here?

seems to compare the number of females in 1986 with the year 1977 itself rather than the number of females in 1977

What is the problem with E?

when to use twice and when to double?

A: Wrong bec we are comparing nos here. much is used to compare quantity

B: Gives an impression that it is 2 times 1977 whereas what we mean is 2 times the no of female ministers. Wrong comparison that changes the meaning of sentence

C: " it" pronoun is ambiguous. So it is better to insert a noun here to remove ambiguity (ambiguity so as what is it: does IT refer to female ministers or nation's clergy)

E: Modifier error; : "a number double that of 1977's" modifies nation's clergy whereas it should modify 20,736 female ministers.

Ans: D No error

Cheers
TJ

can someone explain option D here...double the figure for 1977 is supposed to modify what? is it modifying 9% oe 20736 female number
Thanks
Himanshu

real2008 wrote:when to use twice and when to double?

Definition wise there's not much difference. Twice is an adverb. Double can be an adjective, or noun or verb or an adverb. In the context that we are using in this sentence it is an adjective.

So I really don't see a difference. Both of these words signify a quantity that is two times a given quantity.

In this sentence the correct answer uses double not because twice is incorrect, but because the rest of the sentence has errors.

a] female ministers is a countable noun. Using "much" is incorrect.
b] Lacks the preposition "in". Whenever you talk about time as done in this sentence.. 1972.. you need to use "in".. twice as many as "in" 1977 would have been correct.
c] Indeed unclear. What was double? Survey, council or the figure? In most cases usage of "what" as done here is incorrect.
d] seems clear and concise. double modifies figure.. figure points to number of female ministers.
e] Incorrect.

Hope this helps.

imhimanshu wrote:can someone explain option D here...double the figure for 1977 is supposed to modify what? is it modifying 9% oe 20736 female number
Thanks
Himanshu

I also believe that "D", although it is the best answer among others, is grammatically incorrect. "double" should be a verb here, and it make no sense to put it there without a connector. Please let me know if I'm wrong

E is wrong because of the following:

that of 1977's

it should be either "that of 1977"
or "1977's"


dumb.doofus and others are requested to comment on it.

E is wrong because of the following:

that of 1977's

it should be either "that of 1977"
or "1977's"


dumb.doofus and others are requested to comment on it.

I was PMed to reply to this thread.

Essentially what option E introduces is wordiness and possessive apostrophe (1977's). We use possessive apostrophe to indicate belonging and ownership.

Ex: Rahul's house, Sheela's CD and so on..

In this sentence, use of "that" refers to the number of 1977 and so we don't need an apostrophe to show ownership or belonging.