TomB wrote:
American productivity is declining in relation to Europe’s; the energy expended per unit of production in the United States is as much as twice that expended in West Germany.
(A) as much as twice that expended in West Germany
(B) as much as twice that of West Germany’s expenditure
(C) up to two times of West Germany’s expenditure
(D) up to two times what West Germans expended
(E) up to double the West German expenditure
what is the difference between option A and B?. the phrase 'that' refers to which one in bothe sentences
I want to talk more of this problem though it is not official one
the rule of ellipsis is that
- the cut off part must be present in the previous part
- the remaining part must be paralel to a phrase in the previous part so that it is clear in meaning or the remaining part must be clear in meaning but dose not need to be parallel. we need a parallelism here to make a clear meaning. of course, if both choices are clear in meaning, the choice which is parallel is possiblly considered better.
in b,c and e, energy is compared to expenditure. this is not logic
the problem in a is that a dose not meet the the 2nd standard above. the remaing part is not parallel to a phrase somewhere. there is no "expended in the us" . moreover, "expended in germany" is not clear in meaning. so this phrase is not correct.
even choice D is not clear in meaning. "what" is not clearly energy.
this question is not good. it is presented for us to discuss about comparison and ellipsis.