Hello,
I need help here.
The European Economic Community exported just under $400 billion in goods in 1988, sixty percent more than the United States did and nearly twice as much as Japan's exports.
Here I see that the main clause is "The European Economic Community exported just under $400 billion in goods in 1988".
"sixty percent more ..." is modifying "$400 billion in goods"
So I see the sentence as follows:
The European Economic Community exported just under $400 billion in goods in 1988, sixty percent more than the United States did and nearly twice as much as Japan's exports.
Now I see that "sixty percent more..." and "nearly twice as..." are in parallel.
The compared entities seem to be between:
1. "$400 billion in goods" and "the United States did" - <WRONG>
2. "$400 billion in goods" and "Japan's export" - <CORRECT>
Now if we look at the comparison, we can see that it should be:
"($400 billion in goods was) sixty percent more than what the United States exported"
and
"($400 billion in goods was) nearly twice as much as Japan's export"
Compiling the whole sentence it should be:
The European Economic Community exported just under $400 billion in goods in 1988, sixty percent more than what the United States did and nearly twice as much as Japan's exports.
Now "did", the helping verb, can be changed to complete verb.
The European Economic Community exported just under $400 billion in goods in 1988, sixty percent more than what the United States exported and nearly twice as much as Japan's exports.
That is why I understand choice D to be correct.
Could someone please explain where I went wrong?