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set6-Hispanics

by priyankamishra11 » Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:51 pm
In California today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.

A. In California today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.
B. Of the Californians under the age of eighteen, today more than 43 percent of them are Hispanic, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.
C. Today, more than 43 percent of Californians under the age of eighteen are Hispanic, compared with about 35 percent a decade ago.
D. Today, compared to a decade ago, Californians who are Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, whereas it was about 35 percent.
E. Today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen in California account for more than 43 percent, unlike a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.

I chose E for this but OA is C but it looks like an awkward constrution. Can anyone explain it?
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Re: set6-Hispanics

by codesnooker » Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:23 pm
priyankamishra11 wrote:In California today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.

A. In California today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.
B. Of the Californians under the age of eighteen, today more than 43 percent of them are Hispanic, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.
C. Today, more than 43 percent of Californians under the age of eighteen are Hispanic, compared with about 35 percent a decade ago.
D. Today, compared to a decade ago, Californians who are Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, whereas it was about 35 percent.
E. Today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen in California account for more than 43 percent, unlike a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.

I chose E for this but OA is C but it looks like an awkward constrution. Can anyone explain it?
A. INCORRECT because % of Hispanics is compared with time (today).
B. Same as (A).
C. CORRECT because % of Hispanics is again compared with % of Hispanics.
D. INCORRECT because it is WORDY (Californians who are Hispanics...).
E. INCORRECT same as (A).

Hope this helps...
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by amitabhprasad » Mon Sep 29, 2008 3:43 pm
I guess one more thing to keep in mind is
Compare To --> to show similarity between dissimilar item as in (d) which is not correct.
vs Compare With --> To show dissimilarity between similar comparable item as pointed by codesnooker.
Also "it" in (E) is not very clear to which noun its referring to.
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by sumanr84 » Tue Jun 15, 2010 2:11 am
priyankamishra11 wrote:In California today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.

A. In California today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.
B. Of the Californians under the age of eighteen, today more than 43 percent of them are Hispanic, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.
C. Today, more than 43 percent of Californians under the age of eighteen are Hispanic, compared with about 35 percent a decade ago.
D. Today, compared to a decade ago, Californians who are Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, whereas it was about 35 percent.
E. Today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen in California account for more than 43 percent, unlike a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent.

I chose E for this but OA is C but it looks like an awkward constrution. Can anyone explain it?
Digged an old thread..bear it !!

I think the reason why A, D and E are wrong is due to "43 percent". We need to have "43 percent of something" to make sense..be it "43 percent of Californians" or "43 percent of population of California" .
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by hardik.jadeja » Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:34 am
sumanr84 wrote: Digged an old thread..bear it !!

I think the reason why A, D and E are wrong is due to "43 percent". We need to have "43 percent of something" to make sense..be it "43 percent of Californians" or "43 percent of population of California" .
I think A,D and E are wrong because of wrong comparison.

A) Option A is comparing "Hispanics under the age of eighteen" to "a decade ago" - wrong comparison

The correct comparison would have been
In California today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, compared with 35 percent a decade ago.

D) Option D is comparing "today" with "a decade ago". We need to compare population not the time period. D is also unnecessarily wordy.

E) Option E suffers from same problem - wrong comparison. It is comparing "Hispanics under the age of eighteen" to "a decade ago"

I think you haven't noticed that even the correct option C is also using just 35 percent.

Hope that helps..
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by ansumania » Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:17 pm
In the sentence 'In California today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent, compared with a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent. ' , is the usage of 'it' correct?

which noun does 'it' refer to?

Pl. explain.
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by sumanr84 » Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:14 pm
ansumania - Good Point, Actually "IT" tries to refer to the noun phrase "Hispanics under the age of eighteen", which is wrong.

hardik.jadeja wrote - "the correct option C is also using just 35 percent "

In C, "43 percent of Californians" is already present in the first half of the sentence so you do not need to explicitly mention that again in the second half.

To substantiate what I mean lets analyze A,

In California today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen account for more than 43 percent..................

I can add whatever I want in the end. Example - 43 percent of students, 43 percent of pizza-boy, 43 percent of university population etc. So, the meaning is unclear unless we have "Population" term. We need specifically, "43 percent of Californians" or "43 percent of population of California" to be more precise.

Does this sound reasonable explanation?
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by tanviet » Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:56 pm
I want to reopen discussion of this question

COMMA COMPARED WITH modify what in the structure:

MAIN CLAUSE, COMPARE WITH... and the structure: COMPARED WITH.., MAIN CLAUSE.

COMMA COMPARED WITH refer to the subject of the main clause. Is that right?

The second point'

this is all-is-underlined question and this kind have following character:

1-comparing word by word among answer choice is not helpful as the case with questions in which the answer choices are different by phrases or a few words.

2-mode to attack is using 2 points.
point 1: look for errors within each answer choice without comparing the answer choices.
point 2: comparing MEANING DIFFERENCE not WORD/PHRASE DIFFERENCE among answer choices.

members, pls, share/comment.
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