Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid-1970's and its decline

Question

Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid-1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession than the United States.

(A) Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid-1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession than the United States.

(B) The economic growth of Britain was slower in the mid-1970's and it declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

(C) Britain's economy, which grew more slowly in the mid-1970's, also had declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

(D) The economy of Britain grew more slowly in the mid-1970's and declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than did the economy of the United States.

(E) Britain's economy grew more slowly in the mid-1970's and its decline was much more rapid during the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States.

Zarrolou · Accepted Answer

D. The economy of Britain   grew more slowly   in the mid-1970's and   declined much more rapidly   in the subsequent recession than did the economy of the United States.

Perfectly parallel: the economy is the subject of both actions.

E. Britain's economy   grew more slowly   in the mid-1970's and   its decline was much more rapid   during the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States.

Two different subject: the Britain's economy and its decline (seems the same but there is a difference)
 
The economy grew and then declined
The economy grew and then its decline was

First point in favor of D. Second point: the comparison.

The presence of "did" is D clarifies the comparison: the two economies are compared (Britain's and US's).
In E

decline was much more rapid during the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States.

it's not clear: is the decline more rapid than the US economy? Not clear. In comparisons the presence of an auxiliary verb is necessary if the comparison is ambiguous (as in this case).

Professor · Answer

agree with D. E confuses...

D. The economy of Britain grew more slowly in the mid-1970's and declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than did the economy of the United States.

sm176811 · Answer

Agree with D...

Again a case where the sentence is longer, yet is more accurate than the rest!

fozzzy · Answer

Can someone explain D and E. Thanks!

Countdown · Answer

Hi I think the game changer is the correct form of comparison used in D

The economy of Britain grew more slowly in the mid-1970's and declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than  did  the economy of the United States.

E. Britain's economy grew more slowly in the mid-1970's and its decline was much more rapid during the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States.

==========
The D britiain's economic decline is compared to  that  of united state

whereas in E Britain's economic decline is compared to USA.

Hope its useful,Someone correct if I am wrong.

fozzzy · Answer

@Zarrolou

Your explanations are really awesome, if there was +100 kudos button I would click that every single time!

CKG · Answer

Ans D. comparison is correct.

In E - comparison is wrong. the decline is compared with the economy of the United States.

A, B, C - again comparison error.

anairamitch1804 · Answer

A. Wrong comparison: Britain’s economic growth has been compared with the United States 
B. Wrong comparison: Britain’s economic growth has been compared with the United States 
C. Wrong comparison: Britain’s economic growth has been compared with the United States 
D. CORRECT 
E. Not parallel … ‘grew’ is not parallel to ‘its decline’.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid-1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession than the United States.

A.Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid-1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession than the United States. - growth vs united states ; usage of its to refer to Britain is incorrect as Britain is not a noun

B. The economic growth of Britain was slower in the mid-1970's and it declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did. - growth vs United states

C. Britain's economy, which grew more slowly in the mid-1970's, also had declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did. - economy vs united states

D. The economy of Britain grew more slowly in the mid-1970's and declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than did the economy of the United States. - Correct

E. Britain's economy grew more slowly in the mid-1970's and its decline was much more rapid during the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States.- comparison issue - you can't compare a decline to an economy
Here, its (possessive pronoun) can serve to refer to Britain's (preceding possessive). The reason is that both the possessive pronoun and the preceding possessive serve as ADJECTIVES. That said, a reader might wonder whether the intended referent for its is not Britain itself but Britain's ECONOMY. 
For this reason, we should look for an answer choice that makes the intended meaning crystal clear.

Answer D

Bombsante · Answer

Doing away with extra words in the sentence gives actual answer:
d) The economy of Britain grew slowly and declined more rapidly than did the economy of the United States. parallel with correct tense.
e). Britain's economy grew slowly and its decline was more than the economy of the United States. what does its refer to? Britain or economy? Not clear.

NandishSS · Answer

HI  GMATNinja ,  mikemcgarry ,  egmat ,  sayantanc2k ,  RonPurewal ,  DmitryFarber ,  MagooshExpert  (Carolyn),  ccooley ,  GMATGuruNY ,  SarahPurewal ,  EMPOWERgmatVerbal  ,  dave13

One quick query in the above B & C what does  did  refers to?  declined

In Comparison questions how to identify the verbs such as do, does & did are referring to?

GMATGuruNY · Answer

did  serves to stand in for the simple past tense form of an antecedent verb.
An OA in GMATPrep:
 Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950. 
Here,  did  serves to stand in for the simple past tense form of the antecedent verb  has grown .
Conveyed meaning:
 Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it GREW during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950.

B:  The economic growth of Britain...declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did. 
Here,  did  serves to stand in for the simple past tense form of the antecedent verb  declined .
Conveyed meaning:
 The economic growth of Britain declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States DECLINED. 
This meaning is nonsensical.
It is contradictory to say that the GROWTH DECLINED.
It is illogical to compare how the GROWTH declined to how the UNITED STATES declined.
Eliminate B.

C:  Britain's economy...had declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did. 
Here,  did  serves to stand in for the simple past tense form of the antecedent verb  had declined .
Conveyed meaning:
 Britain's economy had declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States DECLINED. 
This meaning is nonsensical.
There is no justification for the usage of the past perfect ( had declined ).
It is illogical to compare how the ECONOMY had declined to how the UNITED STATES declined.
Eliminate C.

Similarly:
 does  serves to stand in for the singular simple present tense form of an antecedent verb.
 do  serves to stand in for the plural simple present tense form of an antecedent verb.

dave13 · Answer

NandishSS wow your username color is red now

congrats on promotion

see below some information

maybe you will find it helpful NandishSS

Pro-form is a word or phrase that can take the place of another word (or word group) in a sentence. The process of substituting pro-forms for other words is called proformation. In English, the most common pro-forms are pronouns, but other words (such as here, there, so, not, and do) can also function as pro-forms. The pro-form is the referring word in a sentence; the word or word group that's referred to is the antecedent. "Do" as a Pro-Form " Do is used as a pro-form when the predicate itself and all the complements which follow it are elided (Jack hurt himself fetching water, and Jill did, too). If another auxiliary is present, the pro-form do is less common (Has Jack hurt himself? Yes, he has; also, Yes, he has done. . .). Note that the pro-form do is not the same lexeme as the auxiliary do; the latter has only the forms do, does, did while the pro-form has these as well as done and doing." Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/pro-form-grammar-1691537 another example

VERBAL SUBSTITUTION: By means of do and it substitutes for the lexical verb, eg Did you see Tom last week? – ‘I did on Thursday’ / ‘I might have done.’ - do is a pro-form for the predicate: Martin drives a car, and his sister does, too. o By means of do so that functions as a pro-form for the predicate or predication: They planned to reach the top of the mountain, but nobody knows if they did (so). You can take the train back to Madrid, but I shouldn’t (do so) until tomorrow morning.

NandishSS · Answer

dave13  +1

Promotion of what? Lol

Will take after GMAT

100mitra · Answer

Eliminate A, B, and C -  wrong comparison 
(A) Britain's   economic   growth than   the United States  .
(B)   The economic   growth of Britain than   the United States   did.
(C)    Britain's  economy  than   the United States   did.

Option D is correc t with comparison and parallelism - grew || declined (past tense)  
(D)   The economy of Britain   than did   the economy of the United States  .

(E)  Britain's economy  than  the economy of the United States 
 Flaw in option E :  ambiguity with  pronoun "its   decline" and  parallelsim error  "grew" (past tense) not || with "decline" (present tense)

VerbalBot · Answer

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.

Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid-1970's and its decline

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid-1970's and its decline

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards