According to a study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of

Well this is a comparison question. While solving such question, keep one thing in mind that it is a right comparison, apple to apple. Here "for nearly eight million people" is one side of the comparison. let find the other side.

(A) equivalent to the enrollment of --- 80 mil people compared with enrollment. not a right comparison.

(B) the equivalent of those enrolled in --- 80 mil people compared with people enrolled. absurd.

(C) equal to those who are enrolled in --- 80 mil people compared with "those" again for individual people. absurd.

(D) as many as the enrollment of --- 80 mil people compared with "enrollment". quiet silly.

(E) as many as are enrolled in --- right comparison. 80 mil people compared with "as many as are enrolled".

Hopefully E should be right.

Mr. GMATNinja - one kudos for your food blog. Looking at your food choices, I say give a try to Indian food, specially in Delhi.
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Hey GMATNinja
I have got two questions for you!



Your explanation makes perfect sense. (as usual!)
But, the reason I eliminated other options was because of some other kind of ambiguity!
Lets make this a simple sentence first -
Companies are providing training to 8 people, about equivalent to the enrollment of the colleges.

I feel we are comparing the "companies" to the "enrollment". Obviously illogical and absurd!
Companies are providing training to 8 people
Equivalent to the training the enrollment provides to 8 people.

All the wrong options have a similar issue. (C) is comparing companies to students in my opinion.

Is my reasoning fine?

My other (definitely more important) question is - how can u have a food blog and not let us all know about it?

Explanation by egmat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkvtISfDMgI

In this question, there are two parts of transformation to form the ellipsis.
Here are the steps to perform the transformation.

Part I - Changing clause 1 from active voice to passive voice, such that both clauses are in the same voice.
Companies in the United States are providing job training and general education for nearly eight million people (active voice)
to,
There are nearly eight million people received job training and general education (passive voice)




Part II - Combine clause I and II with 'as many as' using the same voice, passive voice

There are nearly eight million people received job training and general education (passive voice)
There are nearly eight million people enrolled in the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.(passive voice)



Then, in the second clause, perform ellipsis by removing the dummy placeholder (there), the repetitious phrase ( eight million) and the subject (people)


There are nearly eight million people received job training and general education
as many as
There are nearly eight million people enrolled in the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.

There are nearly eight million people received job training and general education
as many as ... are ... enrolled in the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.


Finally, reversed the first clause to active voice and combine both the first clause, in active voice, and the second clause, in passive voice.

The result,
Companies in the United States are providing job training and general education for nearly eight million people (active voice)
As many as are enrolled in the nation’s four-year colleges and universities. (passive voice)



Take away:
1. A comparison can have a combination of Active and Passive clauses.
2. When in doubt, modify both clauses such that both are in either passive or active voice
3. Then perform ellipsis to the second clause by removing the dummy placeholder, the repetitious phrase and the subject.

You're right that the comparison in your example is illogical, but I think the sentence is suggesting that the 8 people are equivalent to the enrollment. This also doesn't make any sense. The size of one population can be similar to the size of another population, but humans don't share characteristics with enrollments.


Lol! It's mentioned in my forum signature, but so are a ton of other things. Those other things are general much more useful, so I can't blame anybody for missing the food blog link.
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GMATNinja neither Dazbog Coffee nor Starbucks offer cortado...

I read the analysis and comments and cannot understand whether the original NYTimes article is correct. The original articles uses "enrollment in" while option (A) uses "enrollment of"; otherwise, they are the same.

Can you please comment on the above? Thank you.

Fun question! I actually did a little sleuthing and hunted down the original Times article to confirm that it was quoted accurately. (April 2, 1985. A tip of the hat to the GMAC grunt charged with combing through random 30-year-old articles to inspire SC questions.) It was.

This is all a testament to the fact that even professional writers will occasionally produce problematic sentences in prestigious outlets. The sentence in the Times is questionable for exactly the same reason that (A) is questionable. A technical error? No, but not as clear or coherent as the OA, which logically compares one number to another.

So there you have it: the GMAT holds you to a higher standard than the editors of the New York Times hold their journalists! (At least the standard they had in 1985.)

I hope that helps!

(And mykrasovski, bonus points for the Dazbog reference. I'm betting that you're the only other person on this particular thread who has ever been to a Dazbog. )
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GMATNinja thank you very much for conducting a small investigation The GMAT indeed has very strict standards...

Haha, here is the funny fact. I have walked past multiple Dazbog coffee shops in Cherry Creek and other locations, but have never purchased a cup of coffee in the shop. I did try coffee from Dazbog (my friend got me some) and bought packaged Dazbog coffee in Sawefay. But I am yet to actually walk in the Dazbog store and buy a cup myself

So.... "Let's grab some, I am buying"

Daagh Sir, If in Option C ,"equivalent" was used instead of equal would that Option had been correct .

Hello anshulvnd5,

Although your question is not for me, here are my two cents on this one. IMHO, yes, Choice would be correct with "equivalent" as well.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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I was just watching GMATNinja 's "From great (V40?) to incredible (V45?!) on GMAT SC" video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmHDJYtdDOk

I've come across this question.

Can someone please tell me why we cannot use "enrollment" here???

I do not understand why \(D \)is wrong...

In below question, we are okay with the usage of "harvest", but here "enrollment" is considered wrong??????

https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-1979-lack ... l#p1111413

WHY??????

We can compare "41 million tons" to the "harvest", yet we cannot compare "8 million people" to the "enrollment"...

According to a study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, companies in the United States are providing job training and general education for nearly eight million people, about equivalent to the enrollment of the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.


(A) equivalent to the enrollment of X

(B) the equivalent of those enrolled in X

(C) equal to those who are enrolled in X

(D) as many as the enrollment of X

(E) as many as are enrolled in CORRECT
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I think you meant choice would be INCORRECT with equivalent as well.

Q1:

(D) as many as the enrollment of
(E) as many as are enrolled in


I follow very manual approach ( literal reading) when deal with questions related with comparison .

What D says:
nearly eight million people, about as many as the enrollment of the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.
Here 8 million people are compared with enrollment
What we want:
Compare 8 million people with number of people enrolled

E bridges this gap: you can read B as :

nearly eight million people, about as many as ( quantity ) (WHO? = people) are enrolled in the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.
nearly eight million people, about as many as (number of people- ellipsis) are enrolled in the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.

8 million people vs number of people who are enrolled - Logical comparison; quantity as adjective

Question2:


What we need to compare
41 millions tons ( in 1979) compared with quantity in 1978 --> quantity comparison; quantity as noun

Manual read B:
In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than the 1978 harvest
Ask question: What is 1978 harvest ?
Not clear?
Go backwards:
Production is 41 million tons
41 millions tons ( 1979 number) is 25% less than some number ( 1978)
Can I say:
This number (41 million) is how much quantity was produced in 1978
Similarly , How much for 1979:
In 1979 we harvested xx million tons
Can I say ?
1979 harvest was xx million tons ( quantity).


For your questions
First question compares <number> people : number as adjective
2nd question compares: a number : number as noun

If 1st question is changed to:
Companies in United States are providing job training and general education to people for nearly eight million, about equivalent to the enrollment of the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.
Now enrollment can be equivalent to quantity .
Original :
8 million people vs number of people enrolled in
Modified: People in quantity vs quantity ; people is common now for both comparison; so comparison is noun vs noun

Another example:
There are 5 people in this room as compared 3 people in that room
Wrong: People in this room are 5 as compared to 3 people in that room.
Production is 41 million in 1979 , 25% below in 1978. (quantity comparison)
Production is 41 million in 1979 , 25% below that (production ) in 1978. (quantity comparison)- what E says

Another approach for Q2:
We only have 2 options to choose : 1978 harvest vs 1978
1978 is not clear. It represents year. But 1978 harvest represent harvest in 1978, harvest can be understood as some quantity


I hope it helps

After you understand this concept, you can try next level question:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/traffic-safe ... 15768.html
Here verb can not be omitted.

[quote="chalven"]According to a study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, companies in the United States are providing job training and general education for nearly eight million people, about equivalent to the enrollment of the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.


(A) equivalent to the enrollment of

(B) the equivalent of those enrolled in

(C) equal to those who are enrolled in

(D) as many as the enrollment of

(E) as many as are enrolled in

There is also a problem with the Idioms. The correct form is enrolled IN and NOT enrollment of

Hello Paok,

We hope this finds you well.

We are writing to inform you that "enrollment of" is not actually an idiom error. "enrollment of X" is a perfectly idiomatic way to refer to X's enrollment, the collective of those who have enrolled in X.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Very very helpful answer! thanks. But i have one more quesiton. Whether "Companies are providing training to as many people as colleges enroll." equal to "Companies are providing training to people as many as ones colleges enroll.". And I am very puzzeld with the different structures between,"as adj noun as" and " noun as adj noun as". Are they equalled? Appreciate your work.

Hello tusoa911,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, both of these constructions are usable, but the first one is far superior to the second, as it is much more clear; it is unlikely that he second would be used in a correct answer choice.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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I am confused about E here. In X as many as Y structure, X and Y should be parallel right? Here people(Subject) and are enrolled(Verb) are not parallel. What am i missing here?