rohu27 wrote:
the overall concept tested by this question is that when comparing two things, you need to make sure that the two things are comparable. Compare Apples to apples, not apples to Zebras.

Despite the gains made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of women is still only about 78% of that of a man.

a)Despite the gains made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of women is still only about 78% of that of a man.
incorrectly compares the median salary of women (plural) to that of a man (singular). should compare the median salary of a woman to a man, or women to men.).

b)Despite the gain made by American women in this recent decade, the median salary of a woman is still only about 78% of a man's.
Corrects the original mistake, but changes to the unidiomatic "gain" - needs to be "gains".

c)Despite the gain made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of a woman is still only about 78% of a man.
Same as C, plus illogically compares the median salary to a man, instead of comparing to the salary of a man. Apples to Zebras.

d)Despite the gains made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of a woman is still only about 78% of that of a man's.
that of a man's is a double reference to salary: both the pronoun and the possessive 's refer to the salary. It comes out that we're comparing the median salary of women to the median salary of a man's salary - which is illogical. either the possessive or the pronoun would suffice alone to complete the comparison and indicate that we're comparing salary to a salary (and not salary to a man, as in C).

e)Despite the gains made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of a woman is still only about 78% of a man's

This it the right answer.

Please provide proper explanations. OA later.

rohu27 wrote:Despite the gains made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of women is still only about 78% of that of a man.

a)Despite the gains made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of women is still only about 78% of that of a man.

b)Despite the gain made by American women in this recent decade, the median salary of a woman is still only about 78% of a man's.

c)Despite the gain made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of a woman is still only about 78% of a man.

d)Despite the gains made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of a woman is still only about 78% of that of a man's.

e)Despite the gains made by American women in recent decades, the median salary of a woman is still only about 78% of a man's

Please provide proper explanations. OA later.

tetura84 wrote:Geva, I have a question.
Median salary of a woman = I think this is wrong as we can have salary of a woman.
When we say median, it has to be of a group of people and we determine the median among them.