A recent study, published by the California Bureau of Employment, foun

Question

A recent study, published by the California Bureau of Employment, found that people who sent in resumes with “ethnic-sounding” names had a much more difficult time getting called back from  employers as people who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but “white-sounding” names.

A. employers as people who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but “white-sounding” names.

B. employers as did those who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

C. employers than those who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but “white-sounding” names.

D. employers than those who did send in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

E. employers than did people who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

LakerFan24 · Answer

I'll take a stab in trying to point out the difference between D & E.

I think most of us can see the placement of "did" is different in both A/C. The way I read it, " did " substitutes for " getting called back ". 
--> One group of ppl (ethnic sounding names) had a harder time (GETTING CALLED BACK) THAN ppl (white sounding names).

D is wrong b/c the placement of "did" indicates that the 2nd group of ppl  (white-sounding names)  DID send their resumes ... we know both groups sent in their resumes so this is a non-issue , the issue is that one group is being discriminated against.

E is correct b/c the  placement of "did" should read like this : "employers than  people   who  sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

Kudos if this helped

anuj11 · Answer

does anyone know why D is wrong ? I ended up picking D as the Did+Who const was very strange to me. The OE says the placement of DID is wrong in D. can anyone elaborate on this ?

NicoleJaneway · Answer

I understand E is the right answer because it is the only one that correctly uses  than  instead of  as  and maintains  people  to avoid vague pronoun use. I'm wondering if E would still have been the right choice if it had omitted  did ?

sananoor · Answer

sayantanc2k   GMATNinja   GMATNinja Two  daagh

Experts if i change the option C and include  with  before  white sounding ...then will it be a right option?

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

This problem requires that you properly frame the comparison: “people who sent in resumes with these characteristics had a more difficult time getting called back than people did who had resumes with other characteristics.” In (A) and (B) the “as” is incorrect: you say “more than” not “more as”. In (C), you need a “with” after the “but”: without it, the sentence means that the resume showed qualifications AND white names, clearly nonsensical. For (D), the “did” is in the wrong place: it seems to indicate that only those who decided to send in resumes were affected. The “did” needs to be before or after people, not after the who.  Answer is (E).

Jatinjhalani · Answer

Comparison is between the "difficult time" faced by people, hence "than those"/"than people" is incorrect. This leaves us with B and E.

We can not use as it contains comparative form - more which should be followed by than. Hence E

thangvietnam · Answer

the main problem with choice D is that "those who did send" is not parallel with "people who sent". why we have "did" here. it is not parallel.

anuj04 · Answer

I must admit that this one is the one of the toughest that I have encountered 
 POE1: As Vs. Then  – Since we are comparing nouns (People) instead of clauses, we will have to use “than”. A & B are out
 POE 2: Parallelism Structure-  The underlined part has to be parallel with the non-underlined part “resumes  with  “ethnic-sounding” names”. After “but” in the underlined part of option C, we don’t have “With”. C is out
 POE 3: Pronoun Ambiguity:  In choice D, “those” has ambiguous antecedent. It could be nearest noun “Employers” or “people”. D is out.
  
E is the answer.

Srija221 · Answer

1St point of elimination is between 'as' and 'than'.Than is correct form of comparison.Next is 'those' - it is refering to employers or people is unclear in the sentence.Next vital comparison is between the phrase 'had a much more difficult time' and 'than did people'.Since everything is in past so did must be used in the sentence which is correctly used in the option E.
So option E is the best answer choice.

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Dh4035 · Answer

‘as’ is incorrect here. A and B OUT
 
C is out because its structure of different from the first half of the sentence, so it breaks //ism. In D ‘those’ is ambiguous, so E is the best choice.

thangvietnam · Answer

great explanation. thank you.

ambiguity is a case which we can explain but how to realize ambiguity needs a skill.

if the element compared is in the object phrase of the first clause, the high chance is that ambiguity happens. so, if you see a comparison, ask yourself " is this comparison of subject of object of the first clause. 
this question help us realize ambiguity quickly.

sid0791 · Answer

egmat   GMATNinja

Can you please help with the above question?

In between D & E, I get that in D, those is ambiguous, but In E, doesn't "did" break the parallelism, and what exactly this verb refers to?

Please help me to understand this part.

Thanks & Regards
Sid

DmitryFarber · Answer

sid0791 
"Those" in D isn't ambiguous--it just creates a meaning that doesn't make sense. As the OE says, the issue is in the placement of "did." The sentence restricts "those" to people who DID do all that follows: send in resumes with similar qualifications but with "white-sounding" names.

The DID in E refers back to "have a difficult time." The first group had a MORE DIFFICULT time than the second group did.

(As an aside, this study is real and quite alarming. We have a lot of work to do!)

Gknight5603 · Answer

thanks for the explanation.
however i have a doubt that 
 if in option C with is included before white sounding ..then would it be a right option?
Because it seems that comparison is here between the people??

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kakakakaak · Answer

In option e I did not understand why {did }is necessary ...can someone explain me what are the two quantities compared .....I selected c instead of e becuase I thought people is the qunatity that is compared

kakakakaak · Answer

can someone explain why usage of {did} in option e is correct .... acording to my understanding two quantites that are compared are two different types of people ....... so why a verb did is required ....

EducationAisle · Answer

The sentence is basically saying:

i) One group (people who sent in resumes with “ethnic-sounding” names) had more difficult time getting called back from employers

ii) Another group (people who sent in resumes with “white-sounding” names)  had  less difficult time getting called back from employers

So,  did  substitutes for the simple past tense verb  had .

On a side note, I don't believe  employers  should be in the underlined portion at all.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  kakakakaak ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the comparison here is actually between the nature of the action (how difficult it was) "getting called back", as performed by two groups of people --people with “white-sounding” names and people with “ethnic-sounding names”.

Here "did" stands in for the verb "had"; the second instance of the verb can be omitted for conciseness in a comparison, but doing so is not necessary.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

vishalsinghvs08 · Answer

Hello experts

May I have some help in Option E, please

The structure is - the study found that x had more difficulty than Y.
where X = people who sent in resumes with "ethic-sounding" 
and Y = People who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with "white-sounding names".

We can simply compare X and Y. Why do we need an additional "did"? Aren't we supposed to compare only nouns(or noun phrases) when using "than"? 
By using an additional "did", we are comparing the action of "had difficulty",a usage that is not valid for "than"

Please correct me if my understanding is wrong. Thank you.

KarishmaB   DanTheGMATMan

ParamjitDasGMAT · Answer

Hi  vishalsinghvs08 , I'll be happy to help.

Whilst you  can  compare noun phrases directly with 'than' or 'as', the point is that  'than'  and  'as'  can also act as CONJUNCTIONS (and therefore be used to compare  CLAUSES ). We often add in a little something -- whether it be a preposition, verb, or, in some cases, even a clause -- in the second half to avoid  ambiguity . Here, the additional verb  did  does just this. If there is no ambiguity, the additional verb/preposition etc. may not be needed.

Here the ambiguity is wrt how one would parse the comparison objects -- are we comparing the difficulty that the   two sets of applicants had   in hearing back from employers, OR

Are we comparing the difficulty the first group of applicants had in hearing back from  employers  vs in hearing back from  the second group of applicants ?

Using a clause in the second arm of the comparison removes this ambiguity, which exists in, for example, (C).

Where an ambiguity does not exist, a helping verb is not needed. Check, for example,  this official question .

Hope this clarifies.

A recent study, published by the California Bureau of Employment, foun

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