The word omitted in comparison

[CrystalSpringston]

Hi instructor,
I am a lot confused by the omitted in comparison, since I cannot make it clear when the omit is acceptable and not ambiguous.
I read your post, and agree with you that as long as it's clear in context, you're fine.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... 30890.html[url]
In the post, "Heating prices will rise higher this year than last year" is a correct expression.

But now, I met another similiar example that is judged wrong:

Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than a year ago

the explanation is: the sentence compares prices with a year ago. How come? According to the context, it is obviously that it compares now with a year ago. I think it is perfect!

And the suggested expression is: Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than those of a year ago.

I am seeing ton of such comparison problems in SC and don't have a clue about it. Pls kindly suggestion if any guideline or hardstop can be used to analyze the options.

Thanks in advance!

[RonPurewal]

Hi instructor,
I am a lot confused by the omitted in comparison, since I cannot make it clear when the omit is acceptable and not ambiguous.
I read your post, and agree with you that as long as it's clear in context, you're fine.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... 30890.html[url]
In the post, "Heating prices will rise higher this year than last year" is a correct expression.

But now, I met another similiar example that is judged wrong:

Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than a year ago

the explanation is: the sentence compares prices with a year ago. How come? According to the context, it is obviously that it compares now with a year ago. I think it is perfect!

And the suggested expression is: Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than those of a year ago.

I am seeing ton of such comparison problems in SC and don't have a clue about it. Pls kindly suggestion if any guideline or hardstop can be used to analyze the options.

Thanks in advance!

i wouldn't reject "...higher now than a year ago". it's structured like the other example you found; both are fine (if not perfectly ideal).

where is this example?

if it's a GMAC problem, i'm willing to bet a large sum of money that there are other, far more fundamental, things wrong with the choices that contain "...than a year ago".

[CrystalSpringston]

Hi Ron, yes there existed other tense problem in the second part of the sentence . It is an OG question. Maybe it is not legimate to post the complete sentence here according to the rules.

The original underlined first half is "Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than a year ago....."
The OA of the first half is "Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than those of a year ago...."

If you tell me that both of them(maybe the second one is better in expresson) are acceptable, I think I get a very clear picture and have no further questions.

But the problem is the OG explanation saying The sentence as written makes an illogical comparison between prices at the
producer level and a time period (a year ago); surely the intended comparison is
between such prices now and those of a year ago

They think the 1st one is incorrect.... I am confused here...I know we don't need to challenge the OA rather than learn from it.
But it's really hard to learn from this exampls.
Pls help. Thank.

[RonPurewal]

both versions are fine.
i looked at the problem, and—just as i suspected—the choices with '...than a year ago' can be eliminated for other, quite straightforward, reasons.

don't forget—the OG answer keys are usually incomplete, and often incorrect.
the official PROBLEMS are essentially flawless, but the official answer keys are not. (GMAC's all-stars, the people who write the problems, do not write the answer keys; GMAC 'outsources' that work to people of lesser talent, presumably to cut costs.)

[CrystalSpringston]

both versions are fine.
i looked at the problem, and—just as i suspected—the choices with '...than a year ago' can be eliminated for other, quite straightforward, reasons.

don't forget—the OG answer keys are usually incomplete, and often incorrect.
the official PROBLEMS are essentially flawless, but the official answer keys are not. (GMAC's all-stars, the people who write the problems, do not write the answer keys; GMAC 'outsources' that work to people of lesser talent, presumably to cut costs.)

Ron, thank you so much! Your response is much valuable to me!!

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

[QianH530]

Hi Ron,

I remember you said that in "more...than..." comparison, we need to find the same grammatical structure on both sides of the comparison. According to your post https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/forums/laos-has-a-land-area-t5749-90.html,
Laos has more land area than that of Country X (incorrect), because there is no "X of Y" on the left.

However, the correct OG answer in this question is "Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent higher now than those of a year ago". And no "X of Y" on the other side. Do you think GMAC now accepted this kind of expression? Or anything wrong with my understanding? Thank you!

[RonPurewal]

you need to find the best match -- in other words, the most parallel structure -- among the given answer choices.

you are NOT trying to formulate some theoretical "perfect" sentence and then look for it!

also, you MUST consider context/meaning in determining what should be on the "other" side of the comparison!

in this sentence:

• the right-hand side is "those of a year ago".
• "those" already stands for the entirety of "prices at the producer level". this is clear in context. so, as long as you have "prices at the producer level" || "those...", the parallelism is ok.

there's nothing wrong with the parallelism in the front of A or C either -- even though those are constructed differently -- but, those choices have other, quite fundamental errors that shouldn't be hard to spot.

[RonPurewal]

also, this is an OG problem -- so, we shouldn't even have been discussing it in the first place, and we definitely cannot continue to discuss it.