All major Canadian cities reported significantly higher hotel occupanc

Hi,

All major Canadian cities reported significantly higher hotel occupancy in the four months from June through September last year than that of a similar period a year earlier

A) that of a similar period
What does THAT stand for:- hotel occupancy? replace i the sentence and see if it makes sense

B) a similar period
Wrong comparison

C) those of a similar period's
Completely off track with use of THOSE and period'S

D) during a similar period
correctly formed dentence....
All major Canadian cities reported significantly higher hotel occupancy in the four months from June through September last year than during a similar period a year earlier

E) that during a similar period
Same as choice A

D

I wonder what is wrong with E?

I am not very convinced with the explanation.
Please help.

Hi rekhabishop ,

Here we are comparing two time periods of a certain hotel occupancy.

'That' in E tells us that we are comparing Hotel occupancy in one period with the hotel occupancy of another period. This is making the actual meaning wrong.

D is clearly telling us that hotel occupancy of two periods has been compared. Hence, D is correct.

Did you notice the difference?

IMO it's E

The difference between D and E is whether we should include 'that' after than or not. As the comparison term higher is in front of hotel occupancy ('that') keeping that after than keeps it parallel. If the sentence structure would have been 'hotel occupancy was higher' , then 'than during.. ' is correct answer.

Option A is wrong because of the preposition 'of' , during conveys the meaning clearly.

Not completely sure about this though...What is the official answer?


Sent from my BLN-L22 using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

In comparison type questions, it is recommeneded to first identify one element of the comparison (generally the first is easier to identify). Here the first element can be considered either of the following:
1. a clause: All major Canadian cities reported....
OR
2. an adverbial phrase: in the four months ...

If 1. is considered the first element, then there should be a clause in the second element, and the correct answer would be:
...than (they reported) during a similar period a year earlier.
If 2. is considered the first element, then then there should be an adverbial phrase / adverb in the second element, and the correct answer would be:
...than during a similar period a year earlier (option D).

A pronoun in the second element does not fit in any case. Option E is wrong because an adverbial phrase / a clause is wrongly compared with a pronoun ("that").

I am not able to understand what differentiates D and E and why option E is wrong.
Please explain.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

This problem directly tests parallelism in a comparison: when drawing a comparison, the items being compared must be logically (the proverbial "apples to apples" comparison) and grammatically parallel.

Choice B commits the most common type of comparison error: it's comparing occupancy to "a similar period" last year. You cannot compare "occupancy" to "period," so B is incorrect.

Choices A, C, and E all try to correct that error using a possessive (that of, those of, 's, etc.), but in doing so still fail to draw a logical, parallel comparison. What is being possessed by the period? The comparison begins with "Canadian cities reported...", which is not possession, so the possessive choices are all incorrect.

Choice D draws a proper comparison. With the verbiage in B, you have:

Canadian cities reported higher hotel occupancy:

1) in this period

than

2) during a similar period last year

Note that each portion is logically equivalent (you're comparing period to period) and grammatically equivalent (each has a preposition - "in" or "during" - and then describes the period). For this reason, choice D is correct.

Hello Sir,
EducationAisle
If I were to write this sentence as:

All major Canadian cities reported hotel occupancy to have been significantly higher in the four months from June through September last year than in the previous year.
or
All major Canadian cities reported hotel occupancy to have been significantly higher in the four months from June through September last year than that in the previous year.

Which one would be correct/preferable in GMAT and why so?

Thanks a ton in advance

Both would not be great sentences Vishal, because they seem be comparing hotel occupancy between:

i) in the four months from June through September last year

and

ii) previous year

"a similar period" makes it very clear that the intent is to compare hotel occupancy across two years, for these four months only.

p.s. It's always a good idea to focus on official questions.

VeritasKarishma
I am not totally sure why E would be wrong

All major Canadian cities reported significantly higher hotel occupancy in the four months from June through September last year than that during a similar period a year earlier.

I think we can also safely make the comparison between hotel occupancy numbers. In the end, we are trying to say that hotel occupancy numbers for the four month of this year is higher than hotel occupancy numbers for the same four month of last year

All major Canadian cities reported significantly higher hotel occupancy in the four months from June through September last year than hotel occupany during a similar period a year earlier.

All major Canadian cities reported significantly higher hotel occupancy in the four months from June through September last year than that of a similar period a year earlier

(A) that of a similar period
(B) a similar period
(C) those of a similar period's
(D) during a similar period
(E) that during a similar period

This is how I solved this question in 47Seconds.

Than that - I felt than is just sufficient when comparing two periods. [thought ‘that’ is redundant] so A&E out

During Is the one word that represents time frame in parallel to June through September. Thus D is the answer.

Please correct or guide of my thought process is wrong

Posted from my mobile device

We are comparing two time periods:

The hotel occupancy was higher in A than in B.

Now think is this correct: "Hotel occupancy was higher in A than hotel occupancy in B" ?
Here we are comparing "A" with "hotel occupancy in B". This is not correct.

If we want to compare hotel occupancies, we need to write:
Hotel occupancy in A was higher than that (hotel occupancy) in B. This is correct.

Now if we write: "Hotel occupancy in A was higher than B" then it is wrong.

Focus on what is being compared.

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.