As a trophy property, the price offered for the Office building may sa

Just one step forward. "More about" demands a parallel "than about". As per this reckoning only D is eligible. A, B, and E suffer from this parallelism malady. C is an unidiomatic comparison.
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Take a look at the following sentence:

1. He spoke more about politics than his friend.

Does this mean
1a. He spoke more about politics than (he spoke about) his friend. [A spoke more about X than Y]
Here the comparison is between how much he spoke about politics and how much he spoke about his friend.
or
1b. He spoke more about politics than his friend (spoke about politics). [A spoke more about X than B]
Here the comparison is between how much he spoke about politics and how much his friend spoke about politics.

Here is one way through this question:

A. As a trophy property, the price offered for the office building may say more about the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers than incremental changes in demand for office space in New York.
"Office building" would be a better subject, as otherwise this option seems to say that the price is a trophy property. The comparison is not clear.

B. The price offered for the office building, a trophy property, may say more about continuing wealthy buyers' robust financial health than incremental changes in demand for office space in New York.
The comparison is not clear. The placement of continuing is incorrect (wealthy buyers' continuing robust financial health, not continuing wealthy buyers' robust financial health). Wealthy buyers' robust financial health is awkward.

C. As a trophy property, the office building and the price offered may say more about the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers as it does incremental changes in demand for office space in New York.
This option is just packed with errors. It implies that both the office building and the price are "a trophy property". Also, only the price (and not the office building) should "say" anything about the continuing financial health. This option doesn't clarify what the price was offered for. As is not the right way to continue the more comparison.

D. The price offered for the office building, a trophy property, may say more about the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers than about incremental changes in demand for office space in New York.
The comparison in this option is very clear: A says more about X than about Y.

E. The office building is a trophy property, the price offered for it perhaps saying more about the robust financial health of wealthy buyers than incremental changes in demand for office space in New York.
Awkward construction. Too much emphasis on "trophy property" and therefore not the intended meaning. The comparison is not clear.
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A) As a trophy property, the price offered for the Office building may say more about the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers than - Incorrect. Modifier error + Comparison error.

B) The price offered for the Office building, a trophy property, may say more about continuing wealthy buyers' robust financial health than - Incorrect. Comparison error.

C) As a trophy property, the Office building and the price offered may say more about the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers as it does - Incorrect. Idiom error. 'More X as Y' is incorrect.

D) The price offered for the Office building, a trophy property, may say more about the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers than about - Correct.

E) The Office building is a trophy property, the price offered for it perhaps saying more about the robust financial health of wealthy buyers than - Incorrect. Awkward.

Answer: D

Agree with answer D, could some correct the slight typo and change "orice" to price in the question stem?
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Edited the typo. Thank you.
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How is B a comparison error? It's more of an issue with parallelism. Am I wrong?

HI GMATNinja, mikemcgarry, DmitryFarber, MagooshExpert (Carolyn), ccooley, GMATGuruNY, EMPOWERgmatVerbal, EducationAisle

Can you pls help me with POE? It is bit confusing what are we comparing here continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers & incremental changes in demand for Office space in New York. ?
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If a comparison allows for more than one logical interpretation, eliminate the answer choice.

A and B: The price...may say more about...financial health...than incremental changes
Interpretation 1: The price...may say more about...financial health than incremental changes [may say about financial health]
Interpretation 2: The price...may say more about...financial health than [the price may say about] incremental changes
Since the intended comparison is not crystal clear, eliminate A and B.

E: The price...saying more about...financial health...than incremental changes
Interpretation 1: The price...saying more about...financial health than incremental changes [are saying about] financial health
Interpretation 2: The price...saying more about...financial health than [the price is saying about] incremental changes
Since the intended comparison is not crystal clear, eliminate E.

C: As a trophy property, the office building and the price
Here, the implication is that THE PRICE is functioning as a PROPERTY.
This meaning is nonsensical.
Eliminate C.


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@generis; could you please tag GMATPrep as the source of the question?

Another flaw in this statement that rules out A & E is the modifier "a trophy property". It needs to be right next to (ie touching) "office building"!

D reads like this:

about the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers than about (the) incremental changes in demand for office space in New York.

I this not choose it, because it did not have "the" before "incremental changes."

In other words, "the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers" is compared with "incremental changes in demand for office space in New York."

Why is this not the missing "the" a dealbreaker?

In the sentence, The price offered for the office building, a trophy property,......

What does the "trophy property" modify? Is it the "price offered" or "office building" ?

Hi Biswesh,

A trophy property refers to the office building.

Also, IIRC this is a GMATPrep question, but it hasn't been tagged as such. Bunuel
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First, modifier a trophy property shall modify the Office building. We can eliminate A, C & E
Second, comparison between more about and than about. We can eliminate A, B, C & E
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Added the tags. Thank you!
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How can you quickly see that choice d is correct? For me, to grasp that both "the continuing robust" and "incremental" are adjectives and that both "financial health" and "changes" are nouns, is time consuming. Would really appreciate your feedback:)

Actually while solving this question , i didn't pay attention to any noun or adjectives. I just looked for what is compared with what?


As a trophy property, the price offered for the Office building may say more about the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers than incremental changes in demand for Office space in New York.

price say more about X than Y.-- What A , B and E says ( ambiguity)
I need to look for options :
price say more about X than Y say -- What C says
OR
price say more about X than about Y - What D says


As soon as you read C concisely, you will notice bunch of errors . - Rejected
After I read D, I knew it is most probably my answer.

Detail explanation here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/as-a-trophy- ... l#p2248330

In choice D...

The price offered for the Office building, a trophy property, may say more about the continuing robust financial health of wealthy buyers than about [the] incremental changes...

I ended up eliminating D, because of thought there was a slight parallelism issue - missing "the"

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