Today's techonology allows manufacturers to make small cars

[RonPurewal]

Ron,
In reply to a query, you wrote:
the comparison is between some cars ("small cars") and some other cars ("those [= cars] at any other time...") -- these cars are more fuel-efficient than those cars.
Thus, a form of "to be" is not required in the 2nd part of choice C.

But if I write:
Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than the small cars were at any other time in production history.

Is the sentence correct?? If yes, how can be omit the verb "were"??

If the sentence already contains explicit time cues, that's an adequate substitute for the tense change.

E.g.,
Today's soldiers are much taller and heavier than the soldiers of World War I.
WWI is a past event, so "were" isn't absolutely necessary.

On the other hand, I'm shorter than my father means I'm shorter than he is now. If I want to compare my current height to my father's past height, I need to write ...than my father was [in xxxxx timeframe].

[rustom.hakimiyan]

Hi Ron,

I understand the previous posts where you mention that they/their refers to the same cars and therefore it's incorrect. On the flip side, I read choice B as:

"Todays tech allows manufacturers to make cars more fuel efficient than small cars were" -- I read this as the same types of cars but different engines and therefore, I found this to be correct. Why is my reasoning flawed? Am I inferring too much here?

Second question:

Whenever I see construction X more than Y or More X than Y -- my goal is to keep X and Y as small/short as possible so that it makes sense. I can't recall the actual problem but I read one of your previous post's that said something to this affect regarding the construction "Rather x than y".

By that token, I eliminate E because it has "more fuel-efficient small cars now than at ..." -- the "now" throws it off for me because of the above reasoning. Am I way off here?

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,

I understand the previous posts where you mention that they/their refers to the same cars and therefore it's incorrect. On the flip side, I read choice B as:

"Todays tech allows manufacturers to make cars more fuel efficient than small cars were" -- I read this as the same types of cars but different engines and therefore, I found this to be correct. Why is my reasoning flawed? Am I inferring too much here?

the whole point of "they" is to refer to the same cars specified earlier.

analogy:
pets tend to make people happier than they would otherwise be.
--> clearly the same people.

by the same token, "more xxxx than they were..." implies a previous state of the same vehicles.

--

[RonPurewal]

in fact...
here, you're trying to isolate the concept of "small cars", WITHOUT the context in which it first appears.

this is the exact reason why the pronouns "that" and "those" exist!
• "it", "they", etc. keep all of the original context.
• "that", "those" don't; they're used to place the same noun into a DIFFERENT context (as comparison sentences are wont to do).

in fact, if you just take your own explanation up there--still "small cars", but from a different period in history--you have a pretty good summary of how we use "those" in comparisons.

[RonPurewal]

By that token, I eliminate E because it has "more fuel-efficient small cars now than at ..." -- the "now" throws it off for me because of the above reasoning. Am I way off here?

if you have
... now + than + (other timeframe)
...then the sentence can work, given a sensible context. one timeframe, other timeframe.

e.g., i'm about to give someone a really strong medicine. he is going to feel horribly ill now, but won't ever feel that ill again.
You'll feel sicker now than [b]at any later time.

[RonPurewal]

it's easier to kill "now" simply because it's redundant, given that "today's..." is already there.
(since "now" is sometimes present and sometimes absent, redundancy should be on your radar; you don't need to see this cold.)

[Khush]

Excellent thread!

learned a lot.

Thank You Ron for taking time to explain things in such a detailed manner !

[tim]

:)

[RonPurewal]

Excellent thread!

learned a lot.

Thank You Ron for taking time to explain things in such a detailed manner !

you're welcome

[douyang]

Hi Ron, I would like to confirm with you on my understanding of answer choice A:

The usage of pronoun their in A is correct because "more fuel-efficient now" does not act as a modifier (it is part of make...more... idiom). Thus we can't eliminate A based on the usage of "their".

Thanks in advance.

[RonPurewal]

that's correct.

[VikrantS137]

I am still not able to follow why the use of "their" is correct in "A". Kindly explain.

[tim]

An explanation of why something is correct would not be appropriate. If you find yourself trying to explain why something is correct, you're totally going about sentence correction the wrong way. SC is all about finding errors and process of elimination. If you have an iron-clad reason why something is wrong (i.e. you can refer to a specific page number in the SC strategy guide for the rule that makes it wrong), then eliminate that answer choice. What's left after you've eliminated four answer choices is correct, for no other reason than because the GMAT says so.

[eveH982]

>> Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those were at any time in their production history

you can't use "those" as a standalone pronoun.
you can use it in a larger construction -- such as "those at any other time..." (as in the correct answer) -- but you can't use it by itself.
since you're using a standalone pronoun here, you should use "they", not "those".

also, you'd need "other", for the same reason as mentioned above.

Hi ron, would you please make it clearer what "a standalone pronoun" is, and what does "you can use it in a larger construction" mean?

doesn't "those" just refer to "small cars" without the "that are more fuel-efficient" part here?

I still can't see why is there something wrong with "those" and why I should use "they" instead.

[eveH982]

sorry i've just wrongly post something here, and i edit it again in order to delete the original content.

please ignore this and just answer my question above.. thanx ><