According to a recent study, retirees in the United States are four ti

According to a recent study, retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as to receive it from them.


A. retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as

B. retirees in the United States are four times as likely to give regular financial aid to their children as it is for them

C. retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children than

D. it is four times more likely for retirees in the United States to give regular financial aid to their children than they are

E. it is four times as likely that retirees in the United States will give their children regular financial aid as they are



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I have the same question with yangfrank. Besides, it's not incorrect to say "it's likely that .." The Pronounce usage of "It" is correct, I think. If not, experts, please help to explain why.

Thanks

dear AndrewN, and GMATNinja,GMATNinjaTwo,

I haven't gotten the solid cross off reasoning. most say "it" in D and E are wrong, but however, I am afraid I disagree with them. "it" in D and E like a "it" in "it is raining". why I crossed off D and E just because of indirect expression, compared with C. but I don't think it is a solid reasoning.

would you please clarify the solid reasoning to cross off D and E?

thanks in advance.

In Manhattan SC book Chapter 11, the author mentioned that " times should be followed by as ... as rather than more". The example it gives is " right: The man is 5 times as old as his grandson vs wrong: The man is 5 times older than his grandson". I am confused now because the correct sentence here combines times with more. Obviously, the OG answer is definitely correct. should I ignore the statement in Manhattan SC book or is there a better way to interpret that statement (times should go with "as.. as.. "and shouldn't go with "more"?)

Hello EMPOWERgmatVerbal GMATNinja,
Thanks for the explanation.
Can we eliminate options D and E solely based on pronoun ambiguity? Because THEY can refer to both retirees and children.
Please suggest.

Hello Everyone!

Let’s take a look at this question, one issue at a time, and figure out which option is correct.

According to a recent study, retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as to receive it from them.

A. retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as
B. retirees in the United States are four times as likely to give regular financial aid to their children as it is for them
C. retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children than
D. it is four times more likely for retirees in the United States to give regular financial aid to their children than they are
E. it is four times as likely that retirees in the United States will give their children regular financial aid as they are

After doing a quick scan over the options, there are a couple glaring differences between each option than we can focus on:

1. How they begin: “…retirees in the United States…” vs. “…it is four times more likely…”
2. How they end: “as” / “as it is” / “than” / “than they are” / “as they are”

Since #1 on our list will knock out 2-3 options immediately, let’s start by figuring out how the phrase should start. Right away, we notice that options D and E use vague pronouns:

D. it is four times more likely for retirees in the United States to give regular financial aid to their children than they are
E. it is four times as likely that retirees in the United States will give their children regular financial aid as they are

What is "it" referring to here? We don't know - and that is a MAJOR problem. All pronouns need clear antecedents! Options D and E can be tossed out as INCORRECT because they include pronouns without antecedents.

That leaves us with options A, B, and C. Let’s take a closer look at how each option ends. Each one needs to use parallel structure and follow idiomatic rules, so let’s focus on how well each accomplishes these tasks:

A. retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as

This is INCORRECT because it doesn’t follow the proper idiomatic structure “more likely to X than Y.” It says "more likely to X as Y," which is wrong.

B. retirees in the United States are four times as likely to give regular financial aid to their children as it is for them

This is INCORRECT because of pronoun agreement issues. The singular pronoun “it” is referring back to the plural “retirees,” which doesn’t match up in number.

C. retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children than

This is CORRECT because it uses the correct idiomatic structure “X is more likely to…than Y.” Also, all pronouns are in agreement!


There you go - option C is the right answer!


Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Hi experts, MartyTargetTestPrep AjiteshArun GMATNinja

As it is in option D and E, can we never have an expletive "it" after an opening modifier? D and E are clearly incorrect for other reasons, but I'm not crystal clear on this part.

Another example where I wasn't entirely sure:
"On first encountering leaf-cutting ants in South America, it seemed to some Europeans that the insects were...."

avigutman GMATNinja what is the difference between four times as likely as x vs 4 times more likely than X?

egmat , Here how is there a parallelism issue in option E ? aren't both X and Y clauses in the structure as likely X as Y in option E?

Thank you EMPOWERgmatVerbal , my question is : do we have an idiom "four times as likely" (not "four times MORE likely") , as in the answer B? Can we just leave B because of this wrong idiom?

One basic doubt!

vertitas sentence correction says that 'than' should always be followed with a noun for it to stand correct in the comparisons. It isn't the case here in the correct answer. Need your help how to tackle this!