Few people realize that the chance of accidental injury or death may

IMO D.

generis
I was able to reject A,B and C because of idiom error
Left with D and E I find D better
But why is E wrong what's the error?
daagh sir can you please brief why E is wrong
I read your explaination but haven't understand

teaserbae

When many are involved, we have to say their 'homes' rather than 'home.'

As X, as Y is correct idiomatic usage, correct Answer must hence be (D)

Official Explanation
Comments in blue are mine.

• In choices A and B, as great or greater . . . than is incorrect:
-- greater takes than, but
-- as great must be completed by as

• The statement in B is also redundant in that the notion of greater is contained in at least as great,
and may be would be better than is for expressing a distinct possibility.

As a matter of strategy, eliminate B because the heavily tested
comparison idiom is wrong in exactly the same way as we just witnessed in (A).

• In choice C, might expresses too much doubt
so in place of as is unidiomatic
home should be homes to agree with people
and greater . . . . as is erroneous

• Choice D is best.

• In choice E, so and home are faulty.


CORRECT IDIOMS are
• as great as
• greater than

Best replies:
arun6765 , warrior1991 , and daagh

Kudos to all.

i have a doubt here. in opted option B, as i thought 'chance' and 'may be ' would lead to redundancy . i came across one question where one option was rejected as it had 'possibility' and 'may be'. could anyone clarify this doubt.

(A) may be as great or greater in the “safety” of their own homes than

(B) is at least as great or greater in the “safety” of their own homes than

(C) might be so great or greater in the “safety” of their own home as

(D) may be at least as great in the “safety” of their own homes as

(E) can be at least so great in the “safety” of their own home as

A - correct idiom is "as .. as", in this sentence "as... than", which is incorrect
B - Incorrect idiom usage "as... than"
C - distort the meaning with the usage of so..as, wordy --> so great or greater
E - Same as C

Hence, D is the answer.

brs1cob , sorry, I missed your question.

In this case, the words "chance" and "may be" are complementary; they fit together better than "chance" and "is."
This question discusses a noun, "chance of accidental injury."
The odds of getting hurt at home are a distinct possibility.
May = a distinct possibility.
It's okay to use follow up words that are consistent with the tone and logic of earlier parts.

Weather forecaster: There is a good chance of a heat wave. Temperatures may break 100° F for the next few days.

Did you see something such as the sentence here, MAYBE?? Or here?

I would have to see the sentence that you mention or a similar sentence.
Redundancy is context-dependent, except in certain areas.
"Close proximity"
"To such a great degree"
"Recommended that he should . . . [recommended implies "should"]"

In this case, both "chance" and "may" are speculative. The words are consistent, not redundant.

If you can find an example of the sentence and the rule you saw, your question will be easier to answer.

Meaning: Only few people realise that the chance of accidental injury or death is atleast as great in their safe homes as in a plane or on the road.

Error:
1) idiom error: as great as is correct usage of idiom

Answer: D

generis , With all due respect, I beg to differ with your critique of the OE

For answer choice (B), Redundancy is in fact a great way to eliminate (B).

"is at least as great" is the same as saying "greater than or equal to." Therefore, "is at least as great or greater" is redundant. There is no need to say "or greater." It is already implied that it may be greater.

I hope this makes sense.

MikeScarn , you make complete sense.
I agree with your substantive comment.
I'll remove some of the language.
I was not careful. I should have been. More than 70% of my posts are in PS.

But I do not agree with what seems to be your advice about strategy.
I do not agree that redundancy is as "great" a way to eliminate (B)
as is an error in a heavily tested idiom. That same error showed up in (A).

As a matter of strategy in elimination,
I do not privilege redundancy over glaring error in idioms of comparison.

Redundancy is a legitimate error.
In this and many other questions, my experience tells me that redundancy is not as easy to decide
as other kinds of errors.

If you want to eliminate on the basis of what you are certain is redundancy
rather than on the basis of a botched idiom of comparison? Okay.

I do not recommend the approach.
I use redundancy when I am down to two options, just before I look at matters of style such as concision.
As a professional editor, I strike redundant phrases immediately.
On the GMAT, I wait.

Why? Strategy. GMAC throws curve balls.

Many people believe that and also is always redundant on the GMAT.

Most of the time, and also is redundant. Many OEs mention that fact.
If I recall correctly, though, if and also is in options, those options can be eliminated for a different reason,
Sometimes the OE writer does not mention that reason.

An official question from GMAT Prep that involves and also is HERE.
That question epitomizes the reason that I wait before I deploy redundancy in analysis.

Spoiler alert: part of the reason for a correct answer is revealed


Thanks for the heads up. +1. I disagree with your strategic approach,
but I appreciate the fact that you posted.

Haha, woah. No disrespect was intended, my friend! I'm sure you're way better at this dang test than I'll ever be.

I never said it was my strategy to detect redundancy first and I wasn't implying redundancy was a better way to eliminate an answer choice. Who cares if we eliminate an answer choice off of one error instead of another?

Like you, I immediately found the correct answer choice because I happened to know the "as great as" idiom. But my brain also detected the redundancy in (B), so I eliminated that answer choice with great confidence.

In SC, we just want to eliminate answer choices by the errors that we are training ourselves to detect. If you know the idiom? Great. If you see the parallelism? Great.

Kindest Regards,
Mike

May vs Might
*Note May and Might are not always interchangeable

Contrary to popular belief, may and might are not interchangeable as they have slightly different meanings.

‘May’ refers to a possibility and ‘might’ conveys more uncertainty.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

There are dark clouds in the sky. It may rain later today.

The dark clouds in the sky indicate a possibility of rain.

I’m sick but I might come to the party.

In this example, the speaker is does not feel well and he is uncertain about attending the party. So, there is only a slight chance that he might actually go to the party.

Therefore, always look out for the context and choose the right word based upon the level of possibility.

Tip: Whenever see "great or greater" / "less or lesser" use atleast

This narrows down to D and E . Now its all about idioms

As.........as

So D

I considered a couple of things. This is a comparison sentence. So, greater should be followed by than but great can't be followed by than. So..as is a wrong idiom. The correct idiom is as.. as. All these things are fixed in option D. The correct answer is D.

Dear GMATNinja, dear community,

I realize that D is officially correct but the meaning seems wrong:

"May be at least as great" seems to be conflicted because it both includes "may" (,which expresses uncertainty,) and "at least" (which expresses certainty. This seems illogical. Something can be at least as great as something else. Or something may be as great as something else. But both together seems unclear. Is it certain that the chance of accidental injury or death at home is a great as the chance of accidental injury or death elsewhere or is it only possible that it is as great.

I would appreciate if someone could explain why both "may" and "at least" can be used in this sentence together?

Is there any issues with the first word of each answer choice? My confusion was thinking there was potential redundancy as the non-underlined portion used "chance" so using another version of chance (may, can) is redundant. I suppose that isn't an issue though but any idea why?