Despite a growing population, in 1998 the United States used 38

Are you asking whether the usage of "all-time highest" is correct on the GMAT, or whether it's a good idea to use that construction in real life? Those are two separate questions.

Obviously, the GMAT has no problem with the construction, since it's used in a correct answer on an official question. My personal opinion is that it sounds pretty crappy in this sentence, and I can think of tons of better ways to write the sentence, but it certainly isn't WRONG.

So for the sake of dealing with the GMAT, the phrase "the period of all-time highest consumption" is totally fine, and I wouldn't spend any energy worrying about it.

I hope this helps!

In general, it's best not to invent "rules" that may or may not hold true on every SC question. There isn't a rule about where exactly time markers can appear in a sentence.

The usage in (B) is just fine -- that construction clearly conveys the intended comparison.

(C) and (D) are arranged a bit differently, but they can't be eliminated simply because the time marker isn't at the end of the sentence. (C) can be eliminated because of it's weird passive construction and questionable placement of the "which" modifier. (D) compares an amount of water to "almost 20 years earlier," which makes no sense at all.

The placement of the time marker isn't inherently better in the correct answer choice -- the other options just have major meaning issues.

I hope that helps!

B.

As a side note, 'than' is usually superior to 'comparing to'.
A - what is the comparison? 'day' to 'a period'
C - modifier issue of 'which'
D - 'that having been' GMAT freebie
E - modifier issue of 'which'

Despite a growing population, in 1998 the United States used 38 billion fewer gallons of water a day when comparing it to the period of all-time highest consumption almost 20 years earlier.

Issue: Comparison

Analysis: Looking at the underlined portion of the sentence, we can say that the water to consumption in US is being compared. Hence, we need to use the correct comparison marker and make sure that the compared things are equal.

A. day when comparing it to the period of all-time highest consumption almost 20 years earlier
- Incorrect usage of "when" leading to meaning issue (seems to suggest that the fact was only true at the time of comparison)
- Pronoun ambiguity

B. day than it did during the period of all-time highest consumption almost 20 years earlier
- Correct comparison

C. day than were used almost 20 years earlier, which had been the all-time high consumption
- Incorrect comparison

D. day, compared to almost 20 years earlier, that having been the all-time high consumption
- Incorrect comparison

E. day, which is in comparison to the period of all-time highest consumption almost 20 years earlier
- Incorrect usage of "which" - ", which" is is used to modify noun immediately preceding it.

C is incorrect because of following reasons:
1. "which" does not have an antecedent
2. "were used" - unnecessary use of passive voice, breaking parallelism.

Take another look at (C), "Despite a growing population, in 1998 the United States used 38 billion fewer gallons of water than were used almost 20 years earlier, which had been the all-time high consumption." We're comparing the amount of water the U.S. used to the amount of water used by whom? The U.S. again? The amount of water used in general twenty years earlier?

This is a good example of why the passive voice is sometimes a problem. It's not because the passive voice is ever inherently wrong; it's because the meaning of the sentence can become harder to understand. Contrast this with (B), in which it's 100% clear that we're comparing the amount of water the U.S. used in one period to the amount of water the U.S. used in another period.

I hope that helps!

A. day when comparing it to the period of all-time highest consumption almost 20 years earlier - Incorrect - Comparison error

B. day than it did during the period of all-time highest consumption almost 20 years earlier - Correct

C. day than were used almost 20 years earlier, which had been the all-time high consumption - Incorrect - 'which' incorrectly refers to '20 years earlier'

D. day, compared to almost 20 years earlier, that having been the all-time high consumption - Incorrect - Fragment

E. day, which is in comparison to the period of all-time highest consumption almost 20 years earlier - Incorrect - Comparison error. Usage of water is compared to a period of high consumption.

Answer: B

Hi

GMATNinja abhimahna

I understand "b" is correct among all the answer choices. But is the usage (in general) "all time highest" correct?
"A, B and E", all used "all time highest".

Thanks

Despite a growing population, in 1998 the United States used 38 billion fewer gallons of water a day
=> "fewer" must be followed by "than" so A, D, and E are out.

"the United States used 38 billion fewer gallons of water a day than it did" is the correct parallelism so B is correct.

Hi expert

Is the below part of the choice C is incorrect? If yes then please explain why it is incorrect?

GMATNinja
Can you please explain how in Option c "were used " is incorrect . I understood that which is referring to incorrect noun .
But i want to understand on proper Logical comparison perspective . Here we are comparing water consumption in US in 1998 to any other period .
I guess its correctly compared .
Please correct where am i Wrong .

OE:
Rhetorical construction; Logical predication
When making a direct comparison (in this case, with fewer), the
standard way to express the object of comparison is with than. Here, the
sentence uses fewer . . . when comparing it to, which not only is
unidiomatic, but also creates an illogical predication: United States is the
only possible subject for the verb comparing (surely the sentence
doesn’t mean to say the United States used 38 billion fewer gallons at
the time it was making some comparison!). Also, what is the antecedent
of it here? Grammatically, there is no clear candidate.
A. Instead of using fewer . . . than, this version uses the unidiomatic
fewer . . . when comparing it to, which also introduces a logical
predication problem.
B. Correct. Fewer than is correct, and this version of the sentence has
no logical predication problems.
C. This has a logical predication problem: because the relative clause
beginning with which immediately follows almost 20 years earlier,
it seems that the time period is being described as having been the
all-time high consumption.
D. Fewer than is preferable to fewer . . . compared to; also, there is a
logical predication problem: because the phrase beginning with that
immediately follows almost 20 years earlier, it seems that the time
period is being described as having been the all-time high
consumption.
E. This is awkwardly and confusingly worded. Rather than comparing
the United States’ water usage in 1998 to its water usage nearly 20
years earlier, this appears illogically to compare the United States’
water usage in 1998 to a period of time, namely the period of alltime
highest consumption almost 20 years earlier.
The correct answer is B.

GMATNinja

Despite a growing population, in 1998 the United States used 38 billion fewer gallons of water a day than it did during the period of all-time highest consumption almost 20 years earlier

The time marker is generally used at the end? Is there any grammatical rule for using it?

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