Fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates go on to coll

Question

Fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates go on to college, compared with Canada’s thirty-five percent and Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany’s fifteen percent.

(A) Fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates go on to college, compared with Canada’s thirty-five percent and Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany’s fifteen percent.

(B) Fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates go on to college; in Canada it is thirty-five percent and in Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany it is fifteen percent.

(C) In the United States, fifty-two percent of high school graduates go on to college, compared with thirty-five percent in Canada and fifteen percent in Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany.

(D) The percentage of high school graduates in the United States who go on to college is fifty-two, compared with Canada’s thirty-five percent, Great Britain’s fifteen, Japan’s fifteen, and West Germany’s fifteen.

(E) The percentage of United States high school graduates going on to college is fifty-two that in Canada is thirty-five, and that in Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany is fifteen.

AndrewN · Accepted Answer

Hello, Shameek. It has been a while since we last crossed paths (under my old name, "which I will not utter here"). In an effort to assist you and the larger community, I will offer my thoughts on the answer choices. Since the whole sentence is underlined, we can jump right into the answer choices.

I like the direct language of the beginning of the sentence. It is easy to follow, and it sets up an expectation for the comparison, namely an order of number + of + country + predicate. But then we jump across the comma, and the order is skewed. We get a possessive  Canada's , and the number follows. It is a bit jarring to encounter such a reversal, and the information is less easy to follow. You brought up the question of the -ed modifier. You have to be careful when applying your understanding of grammatical rules too strictly. Here,  compared  can, in fact, reach across the prepositional phrase and predicate of the main clause, if for no other reason than that dropping in the comparison directly would delay the expression of vital meaning and thus make the sentence even harder to follow. (Left-branching sentences, those that delay the main clause, are not preferred on the GMAT™.) Try it for yourself, using this version of the sentence:

Fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates, compared with Canada's thirty-five percent and Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany's fifteen percent, go on to college.

By delaying what is actually being compared, students from one country who go on to college with students from other countries who do the same, we have an entirely meaningless comparison until the end of the sentence, by which time we may have forgotten all those numbers. Consider this, too: how many countries could we add and still draw a meaningful comparison with a left-branching sentence? The clear expression of vital meaning is the foremost concern on SC questions, and this one, any way we spin it, fails to meet that standard. Rather than stand behind an absolute grammatical rule, you might consider rule #1 for SC questions.

Once again, the order of the comparison is off. In the opening clause, we have the same order as before: number + of + country + predicate. Jump across the semicolon, and we get preposition + country + it. What? The  it  should give anyone pause. This is just as sloppy as the previous answer, if not worse.

It is true that the prepositional phrase to introduce the sentence precedes the number—in + country + number + predicate—and that the comparison presents a slightly different order—number + in + country. However, the pieces are no longer mismatched. We have already touched on the -ed modifier and why it should not be placed after  graduates . That might work in a shorter comparison, but we have too much to keep track of in this one for the sentence to operate effectively. So far, so good on this one.

Yes, this sounds awful, but one aspect of it that I do like is that it clarifies whether each of the countries in the comparison sees fifteen percent of its graduates go on to college or whether all three countries combined do so. The possessive form of the country names should be swapped out for number + in + country, but that is not exactly derailing the sentence. The part I cannot get over is the broken up  the percentage... is fifty-two . What does that achieve in the way of clarity that the more streamlined  fifty-two percent  does not? Between this option or (C), I would go for (C) every time.

I will give this one the benefit of the doubt and assume that a semicolon has been left out after  fifty-two . Not only does the split percentage issue rear its ugly head once more, but we also have a problematic comparison in  that . This is why order matters. If we replace  that  with what is logically being compared, we get,

The percentage of United States high school graduates going on to college is fifty-two;   in Canada is thirty-five...

The meaning is completely different from what had been established in earlier versions of the sentence. This is probably the easiest elimination.

You might wonder why I chose to  highlight  the different talking points in the sentences above, rather than mark them in  red , as I typically do, to point out incorrect elements. The reason is that I simply wanted to draw attention to talking points, not declare what was absolutely right or wrong... the type of thinking that can lead to making erroneous conclusions.

Good luck with your studies. Thank you for indirectly bringing this one to my attention.

- Andrew

shameekv1989 · Answer

Can Verb-ed modifier "compared" be used in this fashion? Wouldn't it be modifying "college".

I would prefer D even though the sentence is written horribly.

Kindly explain the use of "compared" and what's wrong in D

nermeendhuca · Answer

Isn’t the idiom “compare to” not “compare with”??

Posted from my mobile device

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  nermeendhuca . Either usage is fine, as  this  Daily Writing Tips post attests, with references to multiple style guides. In fact,  compared with  seems more appropriate in the sentence above, since the emphasis may be on the difference or gap between 52 percent and 15 percent.

I hope you enjoy that post. Thank you for posing a question that will shine light on yet another arcane matter in English grammar. It really helps the community.

- Andrew

AndrewN · Answer

Shameek -

I hit the jackpot tonight when someone indirectly drew my attention to  this post  that addresses your question perfectly. Spoiler: it appears as though the Manhattan Prep SC guide lists this very situation as an exception to the general -ed modifier "touch" rule. (I outlined it above in my earlier post, but it is nice to see that MGMAT adopts the same position.)

Happy reading.

- Andrew

mSKR · Answer

Hello  AndrewN  sir

I was reading your explanations of verb+ed concept in other posts and was re-directed to this question . Undoubtedly , You have explained well this question.

When I treid to solve this question , my eyes went for Singular/plural splits. I have heard that % can be singular /plural.
% of milk IS xyz
% of cars are uvw
Am I right up to this point?

With the same thought, Do you think i can split on the basis of S/P verb ? Can i reject D and E on similar lines?

Did I overthink something? Your suggestions please

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  mSKR . You can certainly create a split between answer choices that opt for a plural agreement and those that go for a singular agreement, but such a split will not lead anywhere on this particular question. Either construct is fine. I agree with what  sssanskaar  has posted above about articles and subject-verb agreement with certain objects of a preposition. To generalize, you should know by now that in most cases, the noun prior to the preposition— of  is biggest offender when subject-verb agreement is being tested—dictates agreement. With certain counting words—e.g.,  percent ,  number —the noun ahead of the preposition does not dictate agreement, but the article does instead. Compare:

1)  A number  of coins  are  being removed from circulation, since they cost more to mint than their face value.

2)  The number  of coins being removed from circulation  is  justifiable, since they cost more to mint than their face value.

The issue is brought to bear in another difficult question I posted on,  here . I hope it helps add some clarity to your approach.

Thank you for thinking to ask me about this one.

- Andrew

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

This question is based on Comparisons and Structure.

In Option A, the comparison is not parallel. 
When a comparison is made between two possessive forms, the forms must be parallel but they are not in this option.  Possession can be conveyed in two ways – by a phrase made up of a noun + preposition + noun or by adding an apostrophe and ‘s’ to a noun.  
In this option, the first part of the sentence contains the former form of the possessive but the second part of the sentence contains the latter. Since the two forms are different, there is a lack of parallelism. So, Option A can be eliminated. 
 
 In Option B, the reference made by the pronoun ‘it’ is incorrect. Since the pronoun is singular, it refers to the singular noun ‘percent’. However, the comparison is not complete as the sentence is about X percent of college students. The order of comparison is also not parallel - 'fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates' cannot be compared with the phrase "in Canada it is thirty five..." So, Option B can be eliminated.
 
 Option D lacks clarity. The splitting up of the phrase – fifty-two percent of high school graduates – is clumsy. The sentence is also wordy and lacks parallelism in the comparison. so, Option D can be eliminated.
 
 Option E seems to be a run-along sentence. The sentence should have been split after “fifty-two with either a conjunction or semi-colon. The use of the relative pronoun ‘that’ as a comparative word makes the sentence awkward. In this option also, the phrase “fifty-two percent of high school graduates” has been split up. So, Option E can also be eliminated.
 
 In Option C the order of words is not completely parallel -  In the United States, fifty-two percent of high school graduates  go on to college, compared with  thirty-five percent in Canada  and fifteen percent in Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany. 
However, the comparison is parallel and this option does not contain clumsy phrasing.  Therefore, C is the most appropriate option.  
 
Jayanthi Kumar.

Akhilshah · Answer

GMATNinja ,  KarishmaB  Please help with options A,C & D

KarishmaB · Answer

Comparison question: We are comparing 52% of US to 35% of Canada and 15% of the other 3. 
We like parallelism. It makes things clear - what is being compared with what.

(A) Fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates go on to college, compared with Canada’s thirty-five percent and Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany’s fifteen percent.

The comparison with Great Britain and Japan is missing.

Even if it were
52% of US grads go on to college, compared with Canada's 35% and Great Britain's, Japan's and West Germany's 15% - I would still consider this. 
It wouldn't be the best parallelism wise (No possessive with US) but better than now.

(B) Fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates go on to college; in Canada it is thirty-five percent and in Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany it is fifteen percent.

The moment I read 'it,' I move on from this option. What does 'it' stand for? The sentence does not mention 'the number of high school graduates who go on to college' explicitly. It is not required in a comparison so why would we use it?

(C) In the United States, fifty-two percent of high school graduates go on to college, compared with thirty-five percent in Canada and fifteen percent in Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany.

It has good parallelism. Essentially, it is
52% high school graduates go on to college  in the US , compared with 35%  in Canada  and 15%  in Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany .

Looks good and clean.

(D) The percentage of high school graduates in the United States who go on to college is fifty-two, compared with Canada’s thirty-five percent, Great Britain’s fifteen, Japan’s fifteen, and West Germany’s fifteen.

The percentage in US is 52, compared with Canada's 35%, Great Britain's 15, Japan's 15 and West Germany's 15.

There is no consistency. Somewhere we are giving percentage before the figure and somewhere after the figure and somewhere we are not giving percentage at all, just the figure.

(E) The percentage of United States high school graduates going on to college is fifty-two that in Canada is thirty-five, and that in Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany is fifteen.

First of all, how is 'that clause' joined with the previous clause? It doesn't play any role in the previous clause. It is a different clause and should be written separately. 
Also, 'that' stands for the noun 'percentage of United States high school graduates going on to college.'
We need to instead say 'The percentage of high school graduates going on to college in US is 52; that in Canada in 35... etc'

Answer (C)

Fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates go on to coll

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Fifty-two percent of United States high school graduates go on to coll

Prep Toolkit

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

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My Rewards