Sentence Correction Question

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Sentence Correction Question

by TariqOmar » Wed May 09, 2018 3:37 am

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According to a 1996 survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, more than three times as many independent institutions of higher education charge tuition and fees of under $8,000 a year than those that charge over $16,000.

A) than those that charge
B) than are charging
C) than to charge
D) as charge
E) as those charging

Correct Answer: D.

Looking for an explanation on why this is the correct answer.

Thank you very much.

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by Terry@ThePrincetonReview » Fri May 11, 2018 3:30 am

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This is a question of recognizing the correct idiom for this comparison and then applying the rule of concision.

The idiom "X times as many Ys do such-and-such" is completed by another phrase beginning with "as", not by "than". There is no use of comparative words ("better", "stronger", etc.) or use of the words "more" or "less", which would dictate the use of "than". This is one of those situations where it's all too easy to conflate idioms, because there IS a comparison made here, so the mind tends to supply "than". But the comparison is not made with the use of comparative words requiring "than". Once you recognize the correct idiom, you can eliminated choices A through C.

After that, it's a matter of recognizing what's being compared and the most concise way of expressing that. What's being compared: independent institutions of higher education charge tuition and fees of under $8,000 and [independent institutions of higher education charge tuition and fees] over $16,000. To find the most concise way of comparing, strip way everything not common to both sides of the comparison. Here's it's of under $8,000 versus over $16,000. Choice D is more concise and does a better job of comparing "apples to apples", because what's being compared is not just two subsets of institutions but the actions of two subsets of institutions (i.e., how much they charge). Furthermore, choice E would introduce pronoun ambiguity with the use of the plural demonstrative pronoun "those", which could refer to "institutions" or to "tuition and fees".

So, to reiterate, choice D is best.

Looking at other uses of this idiom will help clarify:
  • * "Twice as many Americans watch football as watch baseball." You want the verb in the comparison to make it obvious that what's being compared is the object of watch and not the subject. Compare to the next example, where subjects are compared.
    * "Twice as many girls entered the Science Fair as did boys." Or: "Twice as many girls as boys entered the Science Fair."
    * "Half again as many Americans voted for candidate A as for candidate B." The idiom "half again as many" means 1.5 times. Notice that you do not need to repeat the verb because the preposition "for" makes it obvious what's being compared. You could not say, "Half again as many Americans voted for candidate A as candidate B," because this wording doesn't observe parallel construction, creating ambiguity whether "candidate B" is being compared to "Americans" or to "candidate A". Another example: "Twice as many bird species court by visual displays as by vocalizations."
    * "One-fifth as many flowers self-pollinate as cross-pollinate." Here it's actions that are being compared. Also: "Twice as many runners pronate as supinate."
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by GMATGuruNY » Fri May 11, 2018 4:44 am

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TariqOmar wrote:According to a 1996 survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, more than three times as many independent institutions of higher education charge tuition and fees of under $8,000 a year than those that charge over $16,000.

A) than those that charge
B) than are charging
C) than to charge
D) as charge
E) as those charging
A, B and C: three times AS many...charge under $8000 a year THAN
In these options, than is unidiomatic.
Correct: as many X AS Y.
Eliminate A, B and C.

Only PARALLEL FORMS may be compared.
E: three times as many...CHARGE under $8000...as those CHARGING over $16,000.
Here, charge is a VERB, while charging is a MODIFIER serving to describe those.
It is illogical to compare a VERB to a MODIFIER.
Eliminate E.

The correct answer is D.

A general rule for comparisons:
If a VERB in the first clause is transformed into a MODIFIER in the second clause, the answer choice is almost certainly WRONG.
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by deloitte247 » Sat May 12, 2018 12:56 pm

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Option A: Wrong
This is a clear case if direct lifting of the expression with no clear definition of what inference should be drawn summarily.

Option B: Wrong
Here, the statement is lacking in cohesion and it's structurally deficient, grammatically incorrect. It is not fit to be an expression in this context.

Option C: Right
This statement seems appropriate because of the comparison drawn between the two head-words ''$8000 and $16000''. Than to charge'' here could be replaced with ''instead''.

Option D: Wrong
This clearly changes the meaning of the expression because it seeks to infer that the head-word $8000 is directly substituted with another head-word $16000 which is clearly a defective and a weak argument.

Option E: Wrong
Here, the use of ''than'' and ''as'' as the headliner words are not complementary because they inferred different things entirely.

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by GMATGuruNY » Sat May 12, 2018 1:21 pm

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deloitte247 wrote:Option C: Right
This statement seems appropriate because of the comparison drawn between the two head-words ''$8000 and $16000''. Than to charge'' here could be replaced with ''instead''.

Option D: Wrong
This clearly changes the meaning of the expression because it seeks to infer that the head-word $8000 is directly substituted with another head-word $16000 which is clearly a defective and a weak argument.
The SC above appears in GMATPrep.
The OA is not C but D.
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