A survey by the National Council of Churches showed that in 1986 there

most certainly no; double here means two times and is a noun

If double was in verb form- it would be an infinitive - sentence giving order/command to the reader to double- that will not make any sense here.

Try not to focus too much on the technicalities that really don't matter. Focus on answering the question in as little time as possible--and do it effectively.

This is an apples vs oranges comparison. Note that in (A) and (B), "twice as much as 1977" or "twice as many as 1977" are comparing the actual year of 1977 to how many female ministers there were in 1986. This is a typical GMAT trap--just don't be fooled into thinking this is testing you on "as much as" versus "as many as."

Hope that adds a little insight.

Why is option E wrong in this case?

Thanks!

apple an orange comparison is only one factor for this problem. this factor can be learned in gmat book . knowing this factor is not enough for non native. we need to overhaul the total grammar knowledge for this question. This situation is simple to here but fatal to your seccess on sc and verbal. why

all of non native begin preparing gmat when their grammar is weak. the result is that they can learn some grammar point in gmat book but are still lacking the basic grammar, making them fail on gmat sc. this case dose not happen to the natives, who naturally master the basic grammar already and need a few months to master the grammar points characteristic of gmat. that is the reason why the natives need only a few months for gmat.

for non natives, even after they get 100 on TOEFL, they need to overhaul the total grammar in parallel with studying gmat books.

we are a community, all persons have to help each person. each person have to help all persons. I need your help in my finding of the British girl I met in Halong Bay, Vietnam one year ago. help, I have difficulty looking for her in Vietnam.

it will be great if you could elaborate a little more . Also please explain the use of double the figure for 1977

Why is D correct? It's still not clear to me why it is the best answer out of all of the options.

guys, can someboby please explain why option C is wrong? I could not decide between C and D and chose C

In option C, the pronoun "it" does not have an antecedent. In order to use the pronoun "it", there must be the noun "figure" (or some similar noun) somewhere in the sentence. Therefore C is wrong.

Thank you so much for your help, I get it now. Kudos for you.

Yes it would be correct. the structure would then be:

.... twice as many as (there were) in 1977.

A survey by the National Council of Churches showed that in 1986 there were 20,736 female ministers, almost 9 percent of the nation’s clergy, twice as much as 1977.

(A) twice as much as 1977
1. We need "many" to compare a countable noun "females" ..
2. the comparison here is between females in 1986 and females in 1977. However this option says females in 1986 is two times of 1977 (which means 1977 x 2) totally wrong

(B) twice as many as 1977
Same error (2) as explained in option A

(C) double what it was in 1977
"it" does not have a clear referent

(D) double the figure for 1977
Correct

(E) a number double that of 1977’s
we already have "that of" and don't need "1977's" (apostrophe) - redundancy error

I still don't understand why C is wrong. Isn't 'it' same as 'the figure' in D? I think 'it' cannot represent 'female ministers' but it can represent '9 percent of the nation's clergy'. Please explain.

According to C,
A survey by the National Council of Churches showed that in 1986 there were 20,736 female ministers, almost 9 percent of the nation’s clergy, double what it was(9% was) in 1977. Also, it could refer to clergy too. This creates a lot of confusion.
While the actual intent of the question is comparing the 2 numbers.
The number for 1986 and the number for 1977.
D does this task perfectly.

Thank you so much for the reply!

So C is not TECHNICALLY wrong but D does the better job.


[/quote]

According to C,
A survey by the National Council of Churches showed that in 1986 there were 20,736 female ministers, almost 9 percent of the nation’s clergy, double what it was(9% was) in 1977. Also, it could refer to clergy too. This creates a lot of confusion.
While the actual intent of the question is comparing the 2 numbers.
The number for 1986 and the number for 1977.
D does this task perfectly.[/quote]

I have written 4 answers. As I understand they are all correct.
So which one of them have I to choose if GMAT gives them in such manner?

How Do I understand that the double this is 20,000 and not 9%? is the statment within , ..9%....... , a modifier of ministers?