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On the second thought, D has an error- has been in last century. It would have been correct if iyt used "had been" in the last century.
Hence C is the best choice.
(On exam day, I wnt have the time for second thought :( )
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I'll re-post the question because its not underlined and may be confusing:

Despite the recent election of a woman to the office of prime minister, the status of women in Pakistan is little changed from how it was in the last century.

    (A) is little changed from how it was
    (B) is a little change from how it was
    (C) has changed little
    (D) has changed little from how it has been
    (E) is little changed from the way it was

Several sources indicate that (C) should be the correct answer. Yet I want to discuss the meaning of the sentence: Shouldn't we compare the status of women at present to their status in last century? And if it's true, how can (C) be correct?

(C) only says that status has changed in last century, yet logical structure of the sentence is different

Ponder this: In first part of the sentence we deal with some recent development in Pakistan. In second part of the sentence we should somehow establish a connection between recent events and women's status in last century. Something like this -

Although woman has been elected recently, in general, the status of women is quite the same as it was in last century.

The problem is, there are no 100% winners among answer choices here - every answer has its own flaw, but (C) IMHO shouldn't be considered correct.
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using the verb "is" incorrect. 2/3...IMO C

(A) is little changed from how it was
(B) is a little change from how it was
(C) has changed little - "has" is the right verb(D) has changed little from how it has been
(E) is little changed from the way it was
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Hey amma4u,

Yes and no. There are plenty of ways "is" could've been used correctly in this sentence (for example "The state of women is not at all different from the state of women 500 years ago"), and even if you replaced all the "is" with "has", the correct answer would still be the correct answer.

-t
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IMO C.
In C, it shows that the status has changed little. Has is correct here as the status have some ratings in the past but it is still the same.

Clues:
1. changed little is better than is little changed. Placing of the modifier adjective - little, is important here.
2. We are dealing with the status change not the way of change. So, the main culprit is HOW. If A is to be the correct choice then it should be:
is little changed from WHAT it was


I hope this helps.
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This SC is how to eliminate redundancy - "how it was" is redundant + ambiguous "it"

C it is.
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C, mainly because it is concise and to the point.

D, because the status has already changed. It uses the present tense, has been. That says the status "has been something" in the past and "IS STILL THE SAME". Thus, "has been" cancels out "changed".

If "has been" is replaced by "had been", then D is correct.
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Despite the recent election of a woman to the office of prime minister, the status of women in Pakistan is little changed from how it was in the last century.

(A) is little changed from how it was
(B) is a little change from how it was
(C) has changed little
(D) has changed little from how it has been
(E) is little changed from the way it was

Kindly explain.

There is a subtle difference between "changed little" and "little changed". Both are correct but for this sentence, the former would be preferred.

Changed little: Means almost didn't change; seen as a negative aspect
Little changed: Really changed a little; seen as a positive aspect.

And we know the sentence want to say "changed little" because of the use of contrasting word "despite".

"Despite something positive, it is negative."

A, B, E- out.

D- status has been: is incorrect usage for the comparison of two things that are supposedly far apart in timeline. Also, "has changed" signifies that the change is still in effect and kind of ongoing.So the comparison should be avoided.

C: concise and conveys the intended meaning.

Ans: "C"
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C for me..

just wanted to you all to clarify something regarding the usage of despite and inspite of...

I read somewhere (cant find the source) which said that there is a subtle difference between the usage of the two words..

Despite should follow something negative and then the contrasting positive..For ex. Despite the odds, India still managed to win the cup.

Inspite of should follow something positive and then the contrasting negative..For ex. Inspite of having the best line up, S.A. did not win the cup.

It did sound a bit vague and new to me..Please clarify..

Thanks
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Please Clarify between answer choice C and D
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Dungavath
Please Clarify between answer choice C and D
Hello, Dungavath. Believe it or not, I think the cause of confusion here stems from the innocent-looking modifier little. Remove it from consideration, since it is common to all answer choices, and the extraneous verbiage of every answer choice besides the correct one stands out:

Quote:
Despite the recent election of a woman to the office of prime minister, the status of women in Pakistan is little changed from how it was in the last century.

(A) is little changed from how it was

(B) is a little change from how it was

(C) has changed little

(D) has changed little from how it has been

(E) is little changed from the way it was
Consider the barebones sentence:

The status...

(A) is changed from how it was
(B) is a change from how it was
(C) has changed
(D) has changed from how it has been
(E) is changed from the way it was

What do any of these prepositional phrases with pronouns add in the way of clarity that answer choice (C) is lacking? The sentence is commenting on the degree of change of something, and change implies a difference from an earlier point of reference—one that happens to be supplied right after the underlined portion. Rather than get bogged down in pursuing a could-this-work line of reasoning, why not approach the matter from the other end, asking whether a simple and concise iteration of the sentence gets the job done?

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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Dungavath
Please Clarify between answer choice C and D

Hello Dungavath,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option D is inferior to Option C because the phrase "from how it has been" can be deleted without a loss of clarity.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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