What's the comparison with 'Than previously thought'

[HanzZ]

Hello Ron,

Per your request, I am re-posting my question here:
(despite-recent-increases-in-sales-and-cash-flow-t5893-30.html)

The question is: I saw the comparison "than previously thought" in some OG sentences:

-OG Edition 13: SC Practice Question 16 --> parallel marker: as...as
-OG Edition 13: SC Practice Question 65 --> parallel market: than

Basically, I wasn't able to identify what is parallel to what. This parallel structure doesn't look like those in which you can simply look for same elements on both sides of the parallel marker (btw I want to thank you again for all your replies. I understand the 'digging' for same elements method better.)

Could you please kindly help? Some simple examples to start with will be very helpful.

If my question wasn't clear or specific enough, please let me know.

Cheers!

[jlucero]

Hello Ron,

Per your request, I am re-posting my question here:
(despite-recent-increases-in-sales-and-cash-flow-t5893-30.html)

The question is: I saw the comparison "than previously thought" in some OG sentences:

-OG Edition 13: SC Practice Question 16 --> parallel marker: as...as
-OG Edition 13: SC Practice Question 65 --> parallel market: than

Basically, I wasn't able to identify what is parallel to what. This parallel structure doesn't look like those in which you can simply look for same elements on both sides of the parallel marker (btw I want to thank you again for all your replies. I understand the 'digging' for same elements method better.)

Could you please kindly help? Some simple examples to start with will be very helpful.

If my question wasn't clear or specific enough, please let me know.

Cheers!

Let's break down those 2 examples:

16) ...the economy might not be as weak as some analysts previously thought (the economy would be)

65) ...complex life-forms emerged earlier than (scientists had) previously thought (life-forms emerged)

I definitely see the confusion here, but hopefully this makes it a little clearer. In both instances we are comparing what X is to what X was thought to be. Rather than use the full expression "Mrs. Smith found that John is not as smart as Mrs. Smith thought John was", we can condense this to "Mrs. Smith found that John is not as smart as she previously thought"