More than ever, paper is expected to be recycled this year, due to new

While A is not "technically" wrong grammatically, the problem is that there is an ambiguity over whether "more than ever" refers to "expected" or "recycled". Consider two rephasings of the sentence:

(1) Paper is expected, more than ever, to be recycled this year, due to new mandatory recycling laws in municipalities across the nation.

(2) More paper is expected to be recycled this year than ever, due to new mandatory recycling laws in municipalities across the nation.



(1) implies an increased "expectation" that paper will be recycled (as opposed to it not?). This seem to be an unlikely intention of the author compared to (2):

(2) seems to be a more reasonable interpretation of the author's intent being that there is always some paper being recycled no matter what. Unfortunately, that is not what he says, so (A) is not a good choice.

D seems to best convey the intention of (2) so I would go with it.

More than ever, paper is expected to be recycled this year, due to new mandatory recycling laws in municipalities across the nation.

A. More than ever, paper is expected to be recycled this year
Modifier error, implies paper is more than ever
B. It is expected that more paper than ever will be recycled this year than previously and that is
Not clear, we are not talking about paper but instead the amount.
C. The paper expected to be recycled this year is more than ever
Not clear, the paper is more than ever
D. The amount of paper that will be recycled this year is expected to be greater than ever
Correct
E. A great increase in the amount of paper that will be recycled this year is
I can't put my finger on exactly why this is wrong

I agree with D being best

(A) is confusing in that we are not sure what the introductory modifier is really modifying. In all likelihood,
"more than ever" seems to be modifying the expectation of paper being recycled rather than the actual quantity of paper being recycled.

Thus, we can read A as:
Paper is expected, more than ever, to be recycled --> wrong
More paper than ever is expected to be recycled --> right

Given this ambiguity in A, D is best.

D.

Let's analyse C.

(C) The paper expected to be recycled this year is more than ever - "paper" can't be "more than ever". Reference should be to "the amount of paper", not "paper" itself. However the moment we refer to the "amount" - i.e. quantity, I learned that we should use "greater than". We use "more than" when we make qualitative comparison - e.g. I love you more than I do Kelly

For those who profess by D, I have a small question. The comparative term ‘greater’ is to be used strictly with numbers. Where is any number in the topic? The amount here refers to a volume, essentially a non- countable factor.

In addition why such a circuitous way of saying as paper that will be recycled this year is expected to be? Can’t we crisply say as paper expected to be recycled this year is?

(E) would be better stated as "The great increase" rather than "A great increase". The intention of the sentence is to focus on one specific increase that is happening...not a general increase.

The intended meaning of the greatest increase "ever" is also lost with (E). It simply states the direction but misses out on the relative magnitude of that increase.

That's why (E) has some issues.

Agree with Daghah we need more for uncountable and greater for countable items/. How come the amount be greater, this doesn't make any sense. C it is in my opinion, although question may indeed by flawed.

Cheers
J

Well, Correct me if I'm wrong,

but Greater is used for non-countable noun as well as for numbers.. thus the usage here seems to be correct!!

-Piyush

Question to experts

what does "due to ...", which can be interchanged with "caused by", modify here ?

"greater than ever" in D) cannot be modified by "due to..."

In this sentence, "due to..." is acting as an adverbial modifier and is modifying the entire preceding clause. The amount of recycling is increasing due to (or caused by or as a result of) the recycling laws.

KW

I believe "due to" should always modify nouns. And, essentially this is striking difference between the usage of "due to" and "because of", the latter of which always modifies clauses.

Let me know if my understanding is incorrect.

You are absolutely correct. I should have pointed out in my previous post that "due to" is used as an adverbial modifier incorrectly - "because of" would be correct. Watch out when studying problems from non-GMAT sources because some elements will be used incorrectly.

KW

Idiom + Redundancy
A fails to convey the correct meaning.
B is redundant.
C is wrong as it uses ‘paper’ rather than ‘amount of paper’.
E is awkward and changes meaning.
D is the best choice.

1. Option D cannot be correct because of the use of "due to". "Because/Because of" construction should be used in this case.
2. Also, the "amount of paper that will be recycled" does not make any sense. "Number of paper...." should be used in this case.

Not a quality question!

I can't understand why C is wrong!
Pls help

There is a big meaning issue with C: "The paper expected to be recycled this year is more than ever"
Notice that the paper is expected to be "more than ever", not the AMOUNT of paper. C has a very subtle meaning issue. What does it mean for paper to be more than ever? Not very clear, and therefore not a good choice. We can infer that it is referring to the amount of paper rather than paper itself, but why would you pick C over D, when D is much clearer?

Compare this with D:
the AMOUNT of paper that will be recycled this year is expected to be greater than ever

This is a far better choice. It is very logical to say that the amount of paper will be greater than ever rather than saying the paper itself will be greater than ever.

Hope that helps!

More than ever, paper is expected to be recycled this year, due to new mandatory recycling laws in municipalities across the nation.

(A) More than ever, paper is expected to be recycled this year (incorrect: redundancy)
paper is expected is an incorrect expression. It should be the amount as only paper cannot be recycled, it will be the amount of paper that can be recycled.

(B) It is expected that more paper than ever will be recycled this year than previously and that is (incorrect: redundancy)
The option is an exaggeration of option A and conveying the same meaning. Paper is expected to be recycled. If it is more than ever, it should be an amount of paper.

(C) The paper expected to be recycled this year is more than ever (incorrect: redundancy)
Options A, B, and C all have the same errors

(D) The amount of paper that will be recycled this year is expected to be greater than ever (the best option)
It is conveying the message that we were hunting in options A, B, and C

(E) A great increase in the amount of paper that will be recycled this year is (incorrect: incomplete)
The sentence should not be ended with a verb. If it ends with a verb, it needs a predicate that is missing and hence incorrect.