A study on couples' retirement transitions found that women who took

A study on couples' retirement transitions found that women who took new jobs after retiring from their primary careers reported high marital satisfaction, more so than those who retired completely.

(A) more so than those who retired Correct answer - no apparent errors and parallelism is maintained.

(B) which was more than if they had retired "women" are being compared to a situation ("if they had retired"). The clause after "which" refers to the same set of women who are referred to earlier in the sentence. Eliminate.

(C) more than when retiring "women" are being compared to a time period ("when retiring"). Eliminate.

(D) more than if they were to retire Same errors as in (B). Eliminate.

(E) which was more so than those retiring "which" referring to "marital satisfaction" is being compared to "those" ie; women. Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

Parallel structure and tense
"women who took.." ... than... "those who retired"

A is correct

Please, let me put my two cents...

B is out because it talks about hypothetical situation though the sentence talks about the real event. Big plus, wrong comparison. It is comparing high marital satisfaction to situation. Apples compared to bananas, which is wrong.

C is out because it does not say retiring completely what? women or something else. Big plus, wrong comparison. It is comparing apples to bananas. In GMAT it is highly preferable if apples are compared to another apple.

D is out because of hypothetical continuance, plus same wrong comparsion

E is out because of wrong comparison.

A is left which compares satisfaction to satisfaction (which is substituted by the word "SO") Plus, correct grammar.

Hope it helps,

A study on couples' retirement transitions found that women who took new jobs after retiring from their primary careers reported high marital satisfaction, more so than those who retired completely.

A. more so than those who retired

Parallel : study found that women who X reported satisfaction,more so than those(women) who Y : correct

B. which was more than if they had retired

nonsensical comparison ; satisfaction more than if they had retired ; incorrect

C. more than when retiring

Incorrect

D. more than if they were to retire

nonsensical comparison

E. which was more so than those retiring

nonsensical comparison

daagh - Sir, i am confused here between A & B. Option A sounds a little weird because of "more SO than", and Option B compares the two scenarios propertly, IMO. Could you please help with an explanation for B?

neha

'More so' is an emphasizer to signify a higher level of satisfaction. However, the point in this topic is the comparison between one set of people who continue to do some job and another set that just lays back without continuing to work after retirement. This is the intent of the topic.
B is deviating from this motto. It is comparing one's own self with continuing employment and without. Rationally speaking, both situations cannot co-exist. You either work or do not work at a given time. If one is serious about a self-comparison, it can happen only at two different times, and those times might be so different that a true comparison may elude. That is the reason B is defective.

Does 'more' in A modify 'marital status'? Could you please explain the mistakes of other answers?

More is modifying those women who are still working after retiring, the other element which is put in comparison between completely retired women and working even after retiring women.

The thing I am confused about is "More So", though its more logical than rest 4 options but why "more so than" than "more than" Bunuel GMATNinja please help us out.

Posted from my mobile device

HI GMATNinja, generis, @jennpt , VeritasPrepErika, GMATRockstar, TestPrepUnlimited, AndrewN , @MentorTutoring

Can you help with this problem in brief? more so idiom hearing it for the first time...

Hello, NandishSS. You are the first person to tag me under both my new and old names (MentorTutoring). I take it as a compliment, so thank you for flattering me. To keep this response on point, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, more so is used to express the notion of the same kind to a greater degree. That fits the context here perfectly, in a comparison between satisfaction in one group of women—those who took new jobs after retirement—versus that in another group—those who retired without taking new jobs. Looking at the correct sentence with our definition of more so in hand, we can appreciate how the phrase operates:

A study on couples' retirement transitions found that women who took new jobs after retiring from their primary careers reported high marital satisfaction, to a greater degree than women who retired completely.

You might ask why the other answers would not work, particularly choice (C). The problem with that option is that there would no longer be a comparison between two groups of women. Rather, the sentence would be saying that women who retired once from their primary careers had felt more satisfaction in their marriages than these same women later felt upon retiring from their subsequent jobs. Likewise, choices (B) and (D) focus on a single group of women. (A) and (E) are the only options that compare the satisfaction of one group of women with the satisfaction of another, and (A) achieves the proper comparison without the confusing addition of which was.

I hope that helps clarify the issue. Thank you for thinking to tag me.

- Andrew

Hi AndrewN sir

What's the deal with so in the sentence. It is pinching in my eyes . Please help me to get the understanding of so in the current usage.
Till now i only come across "more than" in the right answers but first time " more so than".

Please suggest sir

thanks!

Hello, imSKR. I address this very issue in a post just two above your own. Please let me know if that does not answer your question. I understand the confusion if you have not encountered this construct before. (You will not likely see it but once or twice.)

- Andrew

Skywalker18 , daagh , yashikaaggarwal


will you pls elaborate how comparison is correct in option A.

"more so" refers to previous clause about reporting and "than those" refers to another set of women.
Shouldn't we have a verb out here along with "those" something like "than did those" to make a complete sense about verb comparison out here.

Pls suggest !

We will use POE to eliminate wrong options, then finding correct option among remaining will become a less messy task.

so the question is:
A study on couples' retirement transitions found that women who took new jobs after retiring from their primary careers reported high marital satisfaction, more so than those who retired completely.

(A) more so than those who retired

(B) which was more than if they had retired

(C) more than when retiring

(D) more than if they were to retire

(E) which was more so than those retiring

We know ", which" introduces a non-essential modifier, while we need the following sentence to draw comparison.
so B and E can be eliminated.

retiring in C represents continuous action, which is not so continuing now. we have already drawn the fact, so the action is done in past.
Eliminate C

Among A and D,
You can eliminate D as,
1) if represents condition, while we need the situation to draw comparison mandatorily, so using condition is murky.
2) we have nothing stated in non-underlined part to put parallel to 'if' in underlined part.
3) retirement is done in past, whereas, to retire is no where a past action.

Hence A is better option.

Plus we need the better option among rest, not the best option available.
Hope it helps.

more so is basically an idiom that means to a larger extent.


Yep...the verb (did/reported) is implied in A. In fact, that will pretty much always be the case with than: the verb is either explicitly mentioned or implied.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses the usage of "than", its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

A study on couples' retirement transitions found that women who took new jobs after retiring from their primary careers reported high marital satisfaction, more so than those who retired completely.

(A) more so than those who retired -> Here we have comparison between two group of people, the one who is working post retirement and another, who don't. There is nothing wrong in this structure. Let's keep it.

(B) which was more than if they had retired -> How can the study found, a group who worked after retirement satisfaction vs. the same group satisfaction, if they didn't work. This is not possible. Incorrect.

(C) more than when retiring -> It is the same issue as B. Why do we compare the same group. Incorrect.

(D) more than if they were to retire -> Same issue again as in B. Incorrect.

(E) which was more so than those retiring -> which is incorrect to use here.

So, I think A.

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.