GMATtaker777 wrote:
11. A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were published, reveals that Twain provided financial assistance to one of the first Black students at Yale Law School.
(A) A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were published,
(B) A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year of publication as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
(C) A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published,
(D) Mark Twain wrote a letter in the same year as he published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that
(E) Mark Twain wrote a letter in the same year of publication as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that
I'm happy to help with this.
The first split --- how should the sentence begin? "
A letter" vs. "
Mark Twain"?
The structure "A letter by Mark Twain ..... reveals" is very clear and direct.
The structure "Mark Twain wrote a letter .... that reveals" is wordier and less efficient. Right away, we are not disposed toward
(D) &
(E). These two also completely flub the comparison, so they are out.
The other split revolves around how the comparison is constructed. (The GMAT
loves comparisons!)
The phrasing in
(A) ...
in the same year as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were published ... will sound colloquially correct --- this is what many folks would say in ordinary conversation -- but technically, it is 100% illogical. What follows the words "the same year as" should be a year. Here, we would have to say:
...in the same year as the year when The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were published... (correct, but a little wordy)
...in the same year as that in which The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were published... (correct in a way the GMAT would like)
Those are both correct, but
(A) is wrong.
The comparison in
(B) is completely ungrammatical and wrong.
Only
(C) has a grammatically correct version of the comparison. Here, we have a subordinate clause modifying the word "year." This is a perfectly acceptable solution to the comparison, and arguably, the most concise way to express the idea. This is by far the best answer.
Does all this make sense?
Mike