Sentence correction question

[highestblue]

Hey guys, I wanna ask the following question to the forum.

Although people in France consume fatty foods at a rate comparable to the United States, their death rates from heart disease are far lower in France.

A. people in France consume fatty foods at a rate comparable to the United States
B. people in France and the United States consume fatty foods at about the same rate, the
C. fatty foods are consumed by people in France at a comparable rate to the United State's, their
D. the rate of fatty foods consumed in France and the United States is about the same, the
E. the rate of people consuming fatty foods is about the same in France and the United States, the

* The answer is B.

When my friend asked me this question, intuitively, I knew the answer is B, but couldn't resolve her bemusement over answer choices B and D.

Best I could do was to give her following possible explanations.

First, parallelism. "The rate of fatty foods..." is not parallel to "death rates," because former is singular and later plural. (this seems most plausible)

Second, rhetorical construction. D sounds very awkward and unclear whereas B is concise and simple.

Can someone confirm the validity of these explanations? And if deemed invalid, render me the correct reason?

One more question. The "rate" used in the context, is it correct to interpret it as certain amount, so that "about the same rate" means proportionally equal in amount?

Thanks for your attention.

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

(b) is in the active voice - people are consuming the foods.

(d) is passive - we talk about the rate of food being consumed and we don't even have the people consuming them in the sentence.

Your explanation of (b) just sounding better is why active is almost always preferred over passive - it just seems to "get to the point" a lot more concisely and clearly.

[highestblue]

Thanks Stuart.

[reply2spg]

Can somebody please explain me why C is wrong here? Please help me to understand what United State's is referring to?

Hey guys, I wanna ask the following question to the forum.

Although people in France consume fatty foods at a rate comparable to the United States, their death rates from heart disease are far lower in France.

A. people in France consume fatty foods at a rate comparable to the United States
B. people in France and the United States consume fatty foods at about the same rate, the
C. fatty foods are consumed by people in France at a comparable rate to the United State's, their
D. the rate of fatty foods consumed in France and the United States is about the same, the
E. the rate of people consuming fatty foods is about the same in France and the United States, the

* The answer is B.

When my friend asked me this question, intuitively, I knew the answer is B, but couldn't resolve her bemusement over answer choices B and D.

Best I could do was to give her following possible explanations.

First, parallelism. "The rate of fatty foods..." is not parallel to "death rates," because former is singular and later plural. (this seems most plausible)

Second, rhetorical construction. D sounds very awkward and unclear whereas B is concise and simple.

Can someone confirm the validity of these explanations? And if deemed invalid, render me the correct reason?

One more question. The "rate" used in the context, is it correct to interpret it as certain amount, so that "about the same rate" means proportionally equal in amount?

Thanks for your attention.

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

Can somebody please explain me why C is wrong here? Please help me to understand what United State's is referring to?

Hi,

"United State's" refers to "rate"; the sentence basically says "the United State's rate of consumption of fatty foods".

So, one problem with (C) is that the US doesn't consume fatty foods, people in the US do; the sentence compares people in France to the US, which is an illogical comparison (you can compare a country to a country or people to people, but you can't compare a country to people).

The second problem with (C) is the word "their" at the end; "their death rates in France" is redundant - you should say "their death rates" or "the death rate in France" (although "their death rates" has pronoun ambiguity issues, i.e. "their" could refer to people in France or people in the US).

[atulmangal]

Tricky one...nice explanation

[[email protected]]

hi,
i dont see why e is wrong. Could you please explain?
Thanks

[GMATGuruNY]

Hey guys, I wanna ask the following question to the forum.

Although people in France consume fatty foods at a rate comparable to the United States, their death rates from heart disease are far lower in France.

A. people in France consume fatty foods at a rate comparable to the United States
B. people in France and the United States consume fatty foods at about the same rate, the
C. fatty foods are consumed by people in France at a comparable rate to the United State's, their
D. the rate of fatty foods consumed in France and the United States is about the same, the
E. the rate of people consuming fatty foods is about the same in France and the United States, the

In A, a rate comparable to the United States illogically compares A RATE to the UNITED STATES.

In C, their death rates -- which serves as a SUBJECT -- seems to refer to fatty foods, the SUBJECT of the preceding clause.
The result is a nonsensical meaning: that FATTY FOODS have DEATH RATES.
Eliminate C.

In D, the rate of fatty foods makes no sense: FATTY FOODS cannot have a RATE.
The intention here is to discuss the rate of CONSUMPTION.
Eliminate D.

In E, the rate of people makes no sense: PEOPLE cannot have a RATE.
The intention here is to discuss the rate of CONSUMPTION.
Eliminate E.

The correct answer is B.