Twice vs. Two times

[ranjeet1975]

In the 1980’s the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice as fast as the 1970’s.

(A) twice as fast as
(B) twice as fast as it was in
(C) twice what it was in
(D) two times faster than that of
(E) two times greater than

Hey guys, please help me out with this SC. I am little confused between twice and two times.

Also, can someone tell me the usage of twice/double/two times.

[bachiter]

In the 1980’s the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice as fast as the 1970’s.

(A) twice as fast as
(B) twice as fast as it was in
(C) twice what it was in
(D) two times faster than that of
(E) two times greater than

Hey guys, please help me out with this SC. I am little confused between twice and two times.

Also, can someone tell me the usage of twice/double/two times.

HI Ranjeet,
I just joined MGMAT.
Ur answer should be (C) twice what it was in...

the explanation is as follows:

As rate is already given in the sentence so fast won't be used, thus, eliminating (A),(B), & (D).
two times greater than means that the value + 2 times the value(instead, it should be 'two times' only.)
Thus the answer is (C).

[niksdoon]

Hello Instructors,

Can you please help me to understand difference between following with few examples:

Two times, twice, double

Most of the time I get trapped in question that includes above 3 keywords.

Thanks for your inputs !!

Niks

[akhp77]

In GMAT, double used as verb. but twice used for comparison.

"twice" is better than "two times" because of conciseness.

[niksdoon]

hey akhp77,

Can you pls explain with few examples ? I've seen many cases where "two times" has been prefered over twice.

Instructors, any elaborative explanations please.

Thanks,
niks

[RonPurewal]

In the 1980’s the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice as fast as the 1970’s.

(A) twice as fast as
(B) twice as fast as it was in
(C) twice what it was in
(D) two times faster than that of
(E) two times greater than

Hey guys, please help me out with this SC. I am little confused between twice and two times.

Also, can someone tell me the usage of twice/double/two times.

that split is actually a red herring; as far as i know, there is no substantive difference between "twice" and "two times". in fact, at least one official problem i have also seen "double" used in the same way; although i find that a bit sketchy, apparently it's okay with gmac.

(a) and (e) are incorrect because, taken literally, they compare "the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States" to "the 1970's". that's an illogical comparison.

(d) is wrong because the construction "that of the 1970's" is not properly parallel to anything. in fact, the one construction to which it IS parallel ("the rate of increase...") doesn't make sense: taken literally, you are comparing "the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States" to "that of the 1970s".

(a) and (b) are also incorrect because you cannot say that a rate (or speed, etc.) is "fast".
e.g.
the car is fast --> correct
the car is high --> incorrect
the car's speed is fast --> incorrect
the car's speed is high --> correct
same pattern for "rate" as for "speed".

that leaves (c).

[akhp77]

One this put me in confusion is that why year is in possessive case.
1980’s, 1970’s

[tim]

1980's is not possessive. i know it makes no sense, but decades or centuries are written with apostrophes when pluralized. Now you should all cringe when you see an apostrophe in something like "free kitten's", but it's perfectly okay to use the apostrophe in "hey, remember the 80's?"..