American children perform more poorly in athletic tests of speed, stre

We need American children to match European contemporaries

Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com

American children perform more poorly in athletic tests of speed, strength, and endurance than do their European contemporaries.

Simple rule to remember: Comparison is always between similar things. For example, in this questions American children are being compared to European contemporaries.

The pronoun "their" is correct as it unambiguously refers to plural American children.

As the subject is plural, the plural verb "perform" is correct.

The three elements speed, strength, and endurance are logically as well as grammatically parallel.

Therefore the sentence is correct as is.

A American children perform more poorly in athletic tests of speed, strength, and endurance than do
B The American child performs more poorly in athletic tests of speed, strength, and endurance as does
C American children perform more poorly in athletic tests of speed, strength, and endurance than does
D The American child performs more poorly in athletic tests of speed, strength, and endurance as do
E The American child performs more poorly in athletic tests of speed, strength, and endurance than do

See the choices:
The choices A, D, and E use plural verb "do" correctly as the subject is plural as discussed above. But choices D and E changed the plural verb "perform" to singular verb "performs" which is incorrect.
The choices B and C use singular verb for plural subject.

American children..........more poorly..........than do.........European contemporaries

Correct answer must be (A) for the correct subject verb usage...

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

A

The part of this sentence that’s not underlined is “their European contemporaries.” The reference has to be to the plural “American children,” not the sin- gular “the American child,” so we can eliminate (B), (D), and (E). Also, the plural noun “contemporaries” has to go with a plural verb: it’s “than do their European contemporaries,” not “than does their European contemporaries”, in (C).

A is best answer

Correct Comaprison American children with European
More than construction

The american child is singular vs the american children i.e., plural.

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