siddarth wrote:Q - Data published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that in 1995 there were 113,100 women incarcerated in US prisons, over seven percent of the prison population in the US, three times as much as 1985..

A.three times as much as 1985.
B.three times as many as 1985.
C.triple what it was in 1985.
D.triple the population in 1985.
E.a population triple that of 1985's.

I choose "B", however the OA is D. My Questions is "over 7% of the prison population in the US" is just additional information given in the sentence. So by choosing B, i am saying that the number of woman incarcerated in US prisions in 1985 was 37,700.

Can someone expalin why B is wrong and D correct.

Thank You

@siddharth: from what i can make out option B is not wrong per se..but then option D out here draws a parallel with the population used in the original sentence. Therefore, on a comparative scale D wins over B.

First of all, in my opinion, your approach to ignore the phrase "over seven percent of the prison population in the US" is not entirely correct. I typically ignore phrases like these when I need to identify the subject and the verb in the sentence.

Lets understand the sentence structure first:

Data published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed
that in 1995 there were 113,100 women incarcerated in US prisons,
over seven percent of the prison population in the US,
three times as much as 1985.

This sentence has 2 clauses (with the subject and the verb as shown).
It has two phrases - "over seven..." and "three times as..."

So in essence both the phrases offer additional information about the sentence so you cannot really ignore one of the phrases to find the correct version of the second phrase.

Secondly, there is a comparison in this sentence which is set by the phrase "three times as much as 1985". Now we need to find the components of the comparison. There are two quantities in this sentence - the number of women in 1985 and the population. I believe the comparison can be set for any of these nouns as long as it is set correctly.
i.e. if the comparison is between number of women then the expression as many as should be used
and if the comparison is between the population, then as much as or triple etc. should be used.

Also, the figure for 1995 is expressed as "in 1995, the number of women was ..." so in the comparison expression as well, the expression should contain "in 1985"...

Keeping the above in mind - choice D is CORRECT.

Choice B could have been correct if it were worded as "three times as many as in 1985

I hope this helps.

Data published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that in 1995 there were 113,100 women incarcerated in US prisons, over seven percent of the prison population in the US, three times as much as 1985.

three times...and as much as, are used to compare on thing with another. Now, if both are doing same task, why we should use both in one complete sentence or expression.

So A and D are out.

[spoiler]A.three times as much as 1985.
B.three times as many as 1985.[/spoiler]

C.triple what it was in 1985.
Improper comparison. No proper reference.

D.triple the population in 1985.

E.a population triple that of 1985's.
// Sounds awkward