Sentence Correction

EconomistGMATTutor wrote:Hello!

I think the best way to understand which answer makes the most sense is to replace the word "it" with what that word is referring to - the age of thirty. So let's write out each answer after we make this quick change, and see what we have:

A. According to public health officials, in 1998 Massachusetts became the first state in which more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than under the age of thirty.

This one is the best answer because it's clear we're comparing women over 30 to women under 30, rather than comparing the babies being born to women over/under 30. It also uses parallel structure, which makes this easier to understand.

B. According to public health officials, in 1998 Massachusetts became the first state in which more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than born under the age of thirty.

This one is wrong because it oddly suggests the babies were born under the age of 30, which is true, but not really the point. It leaves out who gave birth to the babies! It would have been okay to say "...than born to women under the age of thirty," which makes it clearer who is doing the birthing!

C. According to public health officials, in 1998 Massachusetts became the first state in which more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than they were under the age of thirty.

This one doesn't really make sense when you read it out loud. It kind of suggests that in Massachusetts, there were more women over the age of 30 than under the age of 30, which is not what we're talking about - we're talking about the number of babies being born, not mothers who existed at the time.

D. According to public health officials, in 1998 Massachusetts became the first state in which more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than there had been under the age of thirty.

Again, this answer is trying to compare how many women existed at the time who were over/under the age of 30, and not comparing the number of babies being born to each group. It also just sounds overly wordy and awkward.

E. According to public health officials, in 1998 Massachusetts became the first state in which more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than had been born under the age of thirty.

E has the same problem as B - it suggests the babies were born under the age of 30, not that the women who gave birth to them were! It would have been fine if they added in the women to the phrase and said something like "...than had been born to women under the age of thirty."

For the most part, this questions has to do with using parallel structure - and what goes wrong with meaning if we don't use parallel structure. I hope this explanation helps clear things up, and gives you a better idea of how to answer questions like this in the future!

I'm available if you'd like any follow up.

BTGmoderatorDC wrote:According to public health officials, in 1998 Massachusetts became the first state in which more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than under it.

A. than
B. than born
C. than they were
D. than there had been
E. than had been born

What is wrong with other options?

OA A

Mo2men wrote:So where do I go wrong with my interpretation of choice C?

BTGmoderatorDC wrote:According to public health officials, in 1998 Massachusetts became the first state in which more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than under it.

A. than
B. than born
C. than they were
D. than there had been
E. than had been born

comparison sentences are sometime hard and very hard. I miss many of them.
look at choice c.
the only weapon for us to do this kind of problems is parallelism. we look for parallelism because it help make logic comparison. parallelism is vehicle not, a purpose. checking for parallelism help us eliminate illogical meaning.
the correct full version will be
than babies were born to women under it. "it " is pronoun, not relevant to ellipsis. forget "it".
we cut off "babies were" and "to women".
than born under it. this is choice b.
because we cut off 2 phrase in 2 places, we have choice b.
if we cut off "babies were", it is a correct sentence
than born to women under it. this is correct.
now, see what happen if we cut off " to women"
than babies were born under it.
this is wrong because now we have phrase "born under it". this phrase is not acceptable because it is confusing, at least by gmat standard. we can not infer "to women" between "born" and "it=age of thirty". or, this new sentence make us think that "babies were born under age of thirty". in other words, this inference is not acceptable , at least, by gmat standard.

it is good that "babies were" were cut off because the new sentence do not make us misunderstand anything.
"than born to women under it". we can not misunderstand anything. "babies were" can be understood without misunderstanding.

in conclusion, "babies were" can be cut off and " to women" can not be cut off because the second phrase make us misunderstand that "babies were born under age of 30". this is gmat standard, I think. we can not argue that I understand "to women" is in between "born" and " under it".

the lesion is that some phrase can be cut off because it dose not cause misunderstanding; other can not because it cause a misunderstanding. IF THE CUT OFF PHRASE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SECOND CLAUSE, IT CAN CAUSE SUCH MISUNDERSTANDING AND SO, IS WRONG.

another example form og.
Most of the country's biggest daily newspapers had lower circulation in the six months from October 1995 through March 1996 than a similar period a year earlier.


(A) a similar period

(B) a similar period's

(C) in a similar period

(D) that in a similar period

(E) that of a similar period
oa is C not D. why.
similarly , choice d make we understand that "circulation in similar period" is a noun phrase and that "in similar period " work as adjective phrase. in the first clause , "in period" work as an adverb. so, choice c dose not make misunderstanding. this means choice d dose not make parallelism which is needed for logic

the purpose of comparison is to avoid misunderstanding. in both problem, choice b and choice d make possible misunderstanding. we can not argue that we do not misunderstand when we read choice b and d in respective problems. we have to admit that choice a and choice c in the two problem are less likely to cause misunderstanding.

this point is hard for me. I read many postings on comparison and figure out this point. I need expert help. thank you