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GMATNinja You don't know how much this helped...
Nonetheless, usually I see that you are against us memorizing idioms, so how could we solve this one without them?
While
it's not usually worth your time to bother memorizing idioms, you can often reason your way through them by considering the logic of each construction.
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(A) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than are other graduates in planning to practice
Think about the comparison in red: because no verb other than "are" is stated, it sounds as though minority graduates are more likely than other graduates
to exist. Well, that's no good. One group might be more likely than another group
to do something. But it's odd to say that one group is more likely than another group simply
to be.
Moreover, what, on earth are "graduates in planning?" I can imagine graduates in, say, a classroom. But "graduates in planning" is nonsense.
So, yes, the idiom in (A) is wrong, but we can see that by reasoning through it, not because we remember the proper construction from a list.
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(B) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than other graduates who plan on practicing
This has the same meaning problem as (A): it still sounds like the minority graduates are more likely to exist than other graduates. (B) is out too.
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(C) minority graduates are nearly four times as likely as other graduates to plan on practicing
Finally, we get a construction that conveys that minority graduates are likely than other graduates
to do something, in this case, "to plan on practicing." Keep (C).
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(D) it is nearly four times more likely that minority graduates rather than other graduates will plan to practice
No need to worry about idioms here -- this one's a hot mess.
What does "it" refer to? There's no logical antecedent. Also, "rather than" makes no sense. If Tim would
rather have bacon than asparagus, he's expressed a (very wise) preference. But no one is claiming that one type of graduate is preferred to another. (D) is out.
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(E) it is nearly four times as likely for minority graduates than other graduates to plan to practice
Another hot mess. Again, no logical antecedent for "it." Worse, it's impossible to tell what, exactly, is being compared. Four times as likely for minority graduates... to do
what? What is "than" doing here without a comparative word such as "more" or "less?" Eliminate (E).
So (C) is our winner, and we didn't have to rely on a single memorized idiom to get there.
I hope that helps!