SC : Veritas Q 1

[Mission2012]

The country's Commerce secretary says that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared to about $20 billion in last year.

a> that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion in last year

b> that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, and that is compared to about $20 billion last year

c> spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion last year

d> spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion reached in last year

e> spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, and that is compared to about $20 billion reached last year

[spoiler]OA : C[/spoiler]

[Java_85]

"compare to" is to suggest resemblances between things that have essentially different natures
"compare with" is to suggest resemblances between things that have essentially similar natures

Here we should use compare with since we're comparing two essentially similar things. ==> A C D
in last year is not right ==> Just C remains.

[[email protected]]

Hi Mission2012,

For this SC, Java_85 pointed out an idiom that you'd find useful. I didn't need to use that idiom to answer the question though because most of the wrong answers have "filler" in them.

Answers B ("and that is compared to"), D ("reached in last year") and E ("and that is compared to.....reached last year") all have excessive wordiness.

Between A and C, you'll notice the extra words "that" and "IN last year" in answer A, which are both unnecessary.

Final Answer: C

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[sana.noor]

havnt u read that using "that" after "says" is useless...
compare with (u r comparing spending of this year with that of last year)
compare to (u r comparing spending to this year with the profit of this year)

[manihar.sidharth]

Hi Mission2012,

For this SC, Java_85 pointed out an idiom that you'd find useful. I didn't need to use that idiom to answer the question though because most of the wrong answers have "filler" in them.

Answers B ("and that is compared to"), D ("reached in last year") and E ("and that is compared to.....reached last year") all have excessive wordiness.

Between A and C, you'll notice the extra words "that" and "IN last year" in answer A, which are both unnecessary.

Final Answer: C

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Rich
Please clear my doubt :
Doesn't Option A has some kinda parallelism "$40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion in last year"

[coolmrityu]

My take on this,

COMPARED TO and COMPARED WITH can be used interchangeably.

X says Y..... Here Y (as a direct speech) needs to be noun/pronoun. So A & B out.
E has lots of unnecessary words i.e. "and that is..."
Between C and D, there is concision issue. So choose C.

@manihar.sidharth
Parallelism can be looked from the sentence "X, compared to/with Y", where X and Y are parallel and not by the way u mentioned here.

Hope I am clean in the explanation.

[Sunny_91]

Hi Mission2012,

For this SC, Java_85 pointed out an idiom that you'd find useful. I didn't need to use that idiom to answer the question though because most of the wrong answers have "filler" in them.

Answers B ("and that is compared to"), D ("reached in last year") and E ("and that is compared to.....reached last year") all have excessive wordiness.

Between A and C, you'll notice the extra words "that" and "IN last year" in answer A, which are both unnecessary.

Final Answer: C

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Rich,
Can you kindly explain why in is redundant in choice A-that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion in last year.
Had the sentence be in 2012 instead of last year, would option A be correct . Please help me in this concept