Soaring costs

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bharatv: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 11; Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 5:09 am

by bharatv » Sun May 17, 2009 1:33 am

Soaring television costs accounted for more than half the spending in the presidential campaign of 1992, a greater proportion than it was in any previous election.

A. a greater proportion than it was
B. a greater proportion than
C. a greater proportion than they have been
D. which is greater than was so
E. which is greater than it has been

Can anyone explain whats the correct answer for this. I see conflicting answers. With many agreeing to C. But my GMAT prep test gave the correct answer as B - which I also agree to. Any suggestions??

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun May 17, 2009 1:33 am

rahulg83: Legendary Member; Posts: 575; Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 2:58 amFollowed by: 4 members; Location: India; Thanked: 18 times; GMAT Score:710

by rahulg83 » Sun May 17, 2009 1:57 am

have been implies that soaring television costs were part of previous campaign and are continuing to be a part of campaign(this part at least is true)..IMO B is concise and simple

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tanviet: Legendary Member; Posts: 1404; Joined: Tue May 20, 2008 6:55 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 18 times

by tanviet » Wed May 20, 2009 9:07 pm

this is very hard

I thing

the meaning is " a greater proportion than the proportion in the previous years" but if we use "it" , "it" has no clear antecedent. we can not use "they" because "proportion" can not be greater than "costs". the best way is not to use pronoun and B is OA

but I want to forget this question. it is too hard and is for 700 gmat person

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Conquer Gmat: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:01 am

by Conquer Gmat » Wed May 20, 2009 9:40 pm

Also the usage of verb was is redundant as we are using idiom 'than any other' formation.

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rrrhhh: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 7; Joined: Tue May 19, 2009 6:45 pm

by rrrhhh » Fri May 22, 2009 11:13 am

Hello.
Here is my analysis IMO:

A. [b]a greater proportion than it was[/b] - [i]it was[/i] not necessary. Also, a verb ([i]was [/i]) is used incorrectly, as the proportion stated before (more than half) does not have a verb.

B. [b]a greater proportion than[/b] - OK. concise and "proportion" correctly refers back to "more than half".

C. [b]a greater proportion than they have been[/b] - they refers so soaring costs, that are not a proportion. So it is an illogical comparison.

D. [b]which is greater than was so[/b] - which does not has a clear noun to modify. What is greater is the proportion "more than half" which is way back in the sentence. Also verb is incorrect (see A).

E. [b]which is greater than it has been[/b] - equal to D.

Regards.

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