Guys, I am all confused. How common is Ellipse tested on GMAT? It seems like every time I am choosing an answer choice that seems to be parallel, it turns out that it is an ellipse. And then when I start thinking something that might be an ellipse, it turns out to be parallel.

I have identified a couple of questions that tests on these. Please help me understand when to use Ellipse and when to use Parallel. When in doubt, which one do I pick?

11.The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully, that he was a small-town Midwesterner who was thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him.
(A) who was thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him
(B) who had been thrust into a world that was dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him
(C) who had been thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and people more polished than he was
(D) thrust into a world dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him
(E) thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he


It is as difficult to prevent crimes against property as those that are against a person.
(A) those that are against a
(B) those against a
(C) it is against a
(D) preventing those against a
(E) it is to prevent those against a

Inflation has made many Americans reevaluate their assumptions about the future; they still expect to live better than their parents have, but not so well as they once thought they could.
(A) they still expect to live better than their parents have
(B) they still expect to live better than their parents did
(C) they still expect to live better than their parents had
(D) still expecting to live better than their parents had
(E) still expecting to live better than did their parents

BAseball, the only major professional sport during the Great Depression, was as present as the weather, and as much discussed.
a) as present as the weather, and as much discussed
b) present like the weather was and it was also discussed as much
c) as present and was discussed as the weather was
d) so present as to be discussed like the weather
e) present and discussed as often as the weather was

My take is: 1A 2E 3B 4A

my answers: A B B A

I think "than he" is actually correct - it's simply short for "than he was". A verb is understood, so the pronoun has to be the subject of the verb.

E is correct. An elliptical sentence is "grammatically sound when the reader can mentally fill the blank-that is, round out the elliptical construction-by inserting a word or words that have been presented elsewhere in the sentence".

example #1
Mark has been hiking these trails longer than I / me [have].

"I" is required as you need a subjective pronoun w/ the elliptical verb have.

example #2
I feel more for him than [I feel] for she / her.
"Her" is required as you need a objective pronoun.

example #3
Dahlia is nearly as fast as he / him [is].
What sounds right - He is or Him is??

What are the OAs?

Though I got it wrong I will have another go at it.. Let us see if it makes sense

For first one...let us break the sentence just after that

in (A)

that
he - pronoun for the Subject
was a small-town Midwesterner - adjective phrase
Missing action or Verb
hence Missing Object on which the action is to be performed
who - another pronoun for the same subject - incorrect, as it is wordy and redundant
thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people - Good one, no issues with this
than - conjunction for unequal comparison
him. - incorrect it should be he

On Ellipsis - if the verb in the same form is already repeated, it need not be repeated again.
Again this is one of those rules mostly meant for comparison.

#1 is E - "Than he" is correct, guys.

Here is the complete (E):

The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully, that he was a small-town Midwesterner who was thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he.

Getting rid of the stuff that doesn't matter:
The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully, that he was a small-town Midwesterner who was thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he.

So now we have:

He was thrust into a world dominated by more polished people than he.

Which implies:

He was thrust into a world dominated by more polished people than he was.

The second was is implied because we're using the comparison signal "more polished than" to compare two clauses. When you compare clauses, you can often use the elliptical construction (except with some comparison signals, most notably like/unlike which are restricted to comparing nouns). Because "he" is a subject pronoun and "him" is an object pronoun, "he" is actually preferable here.

A similar (legal) construction would be the following sentence:

She is more accomplished than I.

There are other issues with the other answer choices here, but I wanted to point out that "he" is just fine in (E).
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Alien,

What is/are the source/sources of these questions?

Thanks,
BC