A recently published report indicates that the salaries of teachers continue to lag far behind other college-educated professionals, because they make an average of nearly $8,000 a year less at the start of their careers and almost $24,000 less a year by the time they reach the age of 50.
(A) other college-educated professionals, because they make an average of nearly $8,000 a year less at the start of their careers and almost $24,000 less
(B) other college-educated professionals, by an average of nearly $8,000 a year at the start of their careers, to almost $24,000
(C) what other college-educated professionals are paid--making an average of nearly $8,000 a year less at the start of their careers and almost $24,000 less
(D) those of other college-educated professionals--by an average of nearly $8,000 a year at the start of their careers to almost $24,000 less
(E) those of other college-educated professionals--by an average of nearly $8,000 a year at the start of their careers, and by almost $24,000
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ceilidh.erickson
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The main issue in this sentence is one of comparison structure. When we say "salaries of teachers continue to lag behind ______," the thing that they lag behind has to be something comparable: the salaries of other professionals. We cannot say "salaries lag behind other professionals," because that's comparing salaries to people. We can eliminate A and B for this reason.
In C, "salaries... lag behind what others are paid" is a colloquialism - we can't use "what" as a catch-all pronoun in this way.
Between D and E, the issue is one of parallelism. The implication is that salaries lag behind by $8000 at the start, and lag behind by $24,000 (at the end). We need to use "by" in both instances, because it's idiomatically incorrect to say "lag to."
The correct answer is E.
In C, "salaries... lag behind what others are paid" is a colloquialism - we can't use "what" as a catch-all pronoun in this way.
Between D and E, the issue is one of parallelism. The implication is that salaries lag behind by $8000 at the start, and lag behind by $24,000 (at the end). We need to use "by" in both instances, because it's idiomatically incorrect to say "lag to."
The correct answer is E.
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
