Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last becau

You've done a good job guys! Let me see if I can help you out with some of the confusion regarding comparisons and ellipses:

A. Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were
What is compared here are the times-- "this year" and "last" (meaning "last year"-- this is an ellipses).

When comparing time or place, you have two options for structuring the comparison:

1. Joe studies more at night that he does during the day. (The sentence compares Joe to himself.)

2. Joe studies more at night than during the day. (The sentence compares "at night" to "during the day.")

B. Heating-oil prices are expected to rise higher this year over last because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did

Important Note!! The comparative structure requires that you use "than" after the "--er".

Correct: Tom is older than Bob.
Incorrect: Tom is older compared to/in comparison with/over Bob

You must use "than" after you've used a word ending with --er.

C. Expectations are for heating-oil prices to be higher this year than last year's because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did

You can stop reading as soon as you get to "for heating-oil prices" because that is not a correct description of the the expectations. The expectations are not for prices, but rather that prices will....

Important Note: Do not change a relative clause into a mere prepositional phrase!!

Ex. "I think that chickens fly" (relative clause: that+subject+verb) IS NOT EQUIVALENT TO "I think of chickens flying" (prepositional phrase: of chickens)

D. It is the expectation that heating-oil prices will be higher for this year over last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil now than what they were

Same problem as B.

E. It is expected that heating-oil prices will rise higher this year than last year's because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did

"prices will rise higher this year than last year's" uses ellipses that hide the logic problem. Complete everything that was left out, and the resulting sentence is: "prices will rise higher this year than last year's prices rose. This is not intended meaning of the sentence.

Second, the word "more" is not correctly placed.

Correct: I paid 5 dollars more for my sandwich today than I did yesterday.

Incorrect: I paid 5 dollars for my sandwich more than I did yesterday.

"More" describes $5 and must therefore be placed next to $5.

The pronoun “they” always jumps off the page at me, and in this case, it seems to refer to “refiners”, the most recent plural. That’s fine.

I’m also OK with the comparison: “refiners are paying… more for crude oil than they were [paying] last year.” I don't think that it’s ideal, but it’s definitely not wrong, and the GMAT would argue that the word “paying” is implied after “were.” Again, I’m not crazy about it, but it conveys the meaning clearly enough.

So let’s keep (A), I guess.


The phrase “expected to rise higher this year over last” is definitely a mess. You would never say that prices “rise higher.” They either just rise, or they just ARE higher. I’m also not sure why we would use “over last” instead of “than last.”

The placement of “more” is also really confusing. “More” modifies “pay about $5 a barrel”, and there’s no good reason to stick the word “more” so far away from the phrase it logically modifies.

But for whatever it’s worth: “they” still seems to refer perfectly reasonably to “refiners.” And the word “did” replaces the verb “pay” (or “paid”, since “did” is past tense). So those things are OK.

But I don’t think we can get over the silly placement of “more” and the "rise higher" mess at the beginning of the sentence. So (B) is out.


(C) has a couple of problems right in the beginning of the sentence. First of all, I can’t understand why we would say “expectations are for… prices to be higher this year.” That’s a horribly indirect way to say that “prices are expected to be higher.” The prices are the focus of the sentence, and it’s best if the prices are the grammatical subject of the sentence.

The comparison is also pretty goofy. “… heating-oil prices to be higher this year than last year’s…” The problem here is the possessive “last year’s.” We could say something like “this year’s prices are higher than last year’s”, or we could say that “prices are higher this year than last year.” But it makes no sense to say that “prices are higher this year than last year’s.”

So (C) is gone.


Like (C), (D) starts with an unnecessarily wordy expression: “it is the expectation that heating-oil prices will be higher this year…”. That’s not WRONG, exactly, but it’s definitely a crappier way to say “prices are expected to be higher this year…”

There’s also a problem with the phrase “higher this year over last.” You could say that prices were “higher this year than last”, but I can’t understand why we would use “over” in this context.

We also have an extra word that muddies the end of the underlined portion: “refiners are paying… more for crude oil now than what they were last year.” There’s absolutely no reason to include the word “what” in this sentence: “than they were last year” is enough by itself.

That’s enough to let us cross out (D).


(E) combines a bunch of problems that we saw in the other answer choices. “It is the expected” doesn't make any sense at all, especially when (A) gives us a much nicer option (“prices are expected to be higher…”). Also, there’s no reason to make “last year’s” possessive – see the explanation for (C) for more on this issue.

Finally, it doesn’t make sense to say that “prices will rise higher this year.” You could say that “prices will rise”, or that “prices will be higher”, but it’s redundant (and damned weird) to say “prices will rise higher.”

So (E) is out, and we’re left with (A).
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I have faced problems with these kinds of questions often...finally after reading Sara's note I am clear on how to handle these problems... would like to present a summary of my understanding to clear potential doubts in the minds of people who are struggling with these concepts...
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It is not correct to say -

HEATING OIL PRICES THIS YEAR ARE EXPECTED TO BE HIGHER THAN LAST YEAR – this way we are comparing heating oil prices of this year with the LAST YEAR (an illogical comparison) where as what we intend to compare are the prices of heating oil in each of the two years).

So we must rephrase it as - HEATING OIL PRICES THIS YEAR ARE EXPECTED TO BE HIGHER THAN THE HEATING OIL PRICE OF LAST YEAR

WHICH CAN BE ELLIPSED TO

HEATING OIL PRICES THIS YEAR ARE EXPECTED TO BE HIGHER THAN LAST YEAR’S [PRICE]
OR HEATING OIL PRICES THIS YEAR ARE EXPECTED TO BE HIGHER THAN THEY WERE LAST YEAR

Another form similar to the one above is -
THIS YEAR, THE HEATING OIL PRICES ARE EXPECTED TO BE HIGHER THAN THEY WERE LAST YEAR (NOT HIGHER THAN LAST YEAR)
Or ellipsed form THIS YEAR, THE HEATING OIL PRICES ARE EXPECTED TO BE HIGHER THAN LAST YEAR’S [HEATING OIL PRICE]

Now if we reword the whole sentence as below – (we have removed THIS YEAR from the first part of the sentence and positioned it AFTER the main verb (are)

HEATING OIL PRICES ARE EXPECTED TO BE HIGHER THIS YEAR THAN LAST
Now the comparison focus shifts from Price to Time frame (this year versus last)

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and narrow it down to the correct answer quickly! To start, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were last year.

(A) Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were
(B) Heating-oil prices are expected to rise higher this year over last because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did
(C) Expectations are for heating-oil prices to be higher this year than last year's because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did
(D) It is the expectation that heating-oil prices will be higher this year over last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil now than what they were
(E) It is the expected that heating-oil prices will rise higher this year than last year's because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did

Because almost the entire sentence is underlined here, there is a lot we can focus on:

1. Heating-oil prices... / Expectations are for heating-oil prices... / It is the expectation that heating-oil prices... (Conciseness/Meaning)
2. than last / over last (Idioms/Parallelism)
3. pay / are paying (Verb Tense/Meaning)
4. ...more for crude oil / ...for crude oil more (Parallelism/Meaning/Conciseness)

The first one that will eliminate 2-3 options right away is #2 on our list: than last vs. over last. This is an issue of idiom usage! We know that it's correct to say that one thing is "higher than" another, and that it is NOT okay to say one thing is "higher over" another. Therefore, we can eliminate the options that use "higher over."

(A) Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were
(B) Heating-oil prices are expected to rise higher this year over last because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did
(C) Expectations are for heating-oil prices to be higher this year than last year's because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did
(D) It is the expectation that heating-oil prices will be higher this year over last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil now than what they were
(E) It is the expected that heating-oil prices will rise higher this year than last year's because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did

There you go! We can eliminate options B & D because they don't follow the proper idiom structure "higher than."

The next one that seems easy to tackle is #4 on our list: more for crude oil vs. for crude oil more. Each phrase is grammatically correct, but they mean two completely different things:

...refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil... = The price of each barrel of oil is $5 higher than before.
...refiners are paying about $5 a barrel for crude oil more... = The price of each barrel of oil is only $5, but refiners are paying that $5 more often than before.

It makes more sense to say that the price of a barrel of crude oil increased by $5, rather than saying it's always been $5 and refiners just pay that more often. So let's eliminate the options that mess up the meaning here:

(A) Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were
(C) Expectations are for heating-oil prices to be higher this year than last year's because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did
(E) It is the expected that heating-oil prices will rise higher this year than last year's because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did

There you have it - option A was the correct choice! It uses concise language, correct idioms, and logical meaning! We didn't even have to deal with the other 2 items on our list because we focused on the ones that eliminated 2-3 options at a time.


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were last year.

A. Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were While The pronoun “they” could cause some degree of confusion, in comparison to the other options, the verb form “expected” is better.

B. Heating-oil prices are expected to rise higher this year over last because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did “Rise higher” is redundant.

C. Expectations are for heating-oil prices to be higher this year than last year's because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did The comparison is awkward. It would be better to say “Expectations are for heating-oil prices to be higher this year than last year.” Also, the noun form “expectations” is not as preferred as the verb “expected.”

D. It is the expectation that heating-oil prices will be higher for this year over last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil now than what they were The phrase “higher for this year” is awkward. Also, the noun form “expectations” is not as preferred as the verb “expected.”

E. It is expected that heating-oil prices will rise higher this year than last year's because refiners pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did “Rise higher” is redundant.

- Nitha Jay

A IMO
rise and higher together are redundant - B/E are out
last year's doesn't make a parallel consturction- C is out
and between A and D , D is wordy I think. Besides, using 'than' seems to be more correct than 'over'

What's OA?

Example of ellipsis

Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last [year's prices] ----> Bulls eye

A is correct. "expected to be" is correct idiom. and "paying" is correct.

hence A.

C: is comparing expectations of this year vs the last year's. change of meaning. OUT

A it is.

Yes by the process of elimination we reach A.

Can some one explain what exactly are we comparing here and whether the things being compared are parallel.

IMO we are comparing the prices last year with the prices this year and the years.
From a parallelism perspective is A correct? If yes How?

Experts please comment.

Thanks

Ellipsis is at its full play in this topic. Let me paraphrase it, with the elliptical elements in parenthesis.

A) Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year
than last (year) because refiners are paying about $5 a
barrel more for crude oil than they were (paying) last year.
One can now see how the comparisons are smugly fitting in.

2.) It is expected that heating-oil prices will rise
higher this year than last year's because refiners
pay about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than
they did

A cue for the correctness of the comparison can be had from the placement of the comparison -marker such as than etc. The comparison marker is place placed either next or prior to what it compares. Here in this case, than is placed next to this year and therefore the comparison should legally appear with a similar feature such as last year and not last year’s.

Another example

Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it is no less important.
(A) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it
(B) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, he
(C) Stravinsky’s is and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s is, it
(D) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, he
(E) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, it

Now the comparison- marker ‘than’ is placed just before the Arnold Schonberg’s, implying that something that belongs to Stravinsky is being compared. And the text says that Béla Bartók’s music is compared with Arnold Schonberg’s music. Here music is elliptical

Hope Chocie E is no serious contender
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When we have these types of SC questions, where the underline portion consists of > 90% of the text, we need to be pretty methodical, CAREFUL and really, really, really understand the intended meaning. In this case, the fact that "last year" is not underline helps us in picking the right choice. So: focus on options that end in words that correctly "flow" into the words last year.

A) Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher... because refiners... are paying more.... THAN they were... [last year]. Than they were flows nicely into last year, and "they" correctly refers to refiners. Also, there's no ambiguity and words are not positioned in wrong places. So far so good, let's check the other options.

B) Heating-oil prices are expected to rise higher.. STOP. Rise higher? What? That implies some force will elevate prices so they physically rise above their current position. Obviously, this makes no sense.. Even if we ignore rise higher, "5 dollars a barrel for crude oil more" is wrong. More should come after 5 dollars otherwise more incorrectly refers to crude oil and not dollars. So, the errors here are grammatical. Notice that "they did" nicely flows into "last year" because they did refers to refiners.. Still, B is wrong for the grammatical errors.

C) "Expectations are for" seems like a perfect trap for certain non-native test-takers, but people that have had extensive exposure to american english know this sounds all types of wrong. Expectations are "for" nothing at all, frankly.. Something(s) is/are EXPECTED, or something is expected OF someone else, but not "for". Also, Im not sure but I believe "this year's" refers to expectations and not prices (it doesn't matter though, the option has so many other errors). And again, we have an error with "more" at the end of the sentence.

D) Again with the weird use of expectation.. "It is the expectation that" refers to who? Who expects? this option implies some sort of universal, objective expectation. Also "will rise higher" again implies prices will be elevated past their current, more down-to-earth position. That's clearly not the author's intent.

E) this is the best "wrong" answer, but it's still riddled with wrong elements. "rise higher" is wrong, "5 dollars for oil more" is wrong, and Im not sure (but it's just a minor issue) that "year's" is used correctly either.

Anyway.. A is clearly right because it is not riddled with the grammatical/meaning errors that the other options are.

Can please someone explain, under what circumstances “they were” is right in this case?

Isn’t it referring to “refiners are paying”?
Therefore “refiners are paying 5$ more, than they did last year”, instead of “… than they were” last year?

Were payed sounds totally weird to me, even if agree with the rest of the official answer

Hi holdem,

It’s a case of ellipsis and the word missing is ‘paying’ not ‘paid’. So, the verb is ‘were paying’ not ‘were paid’.

Let’s take two simplified versions of the sentence to understand the difference in the meaning conveyed by ‘were’ and ‘did’ in this context.

• Refiners are paying 5$ more for crude oil than they were (paying) last year.

The past continuous tense (were) tells us that this action of paying happens weekly/monthly/quarterly. So, when we compare ‘are paying’ with ‘were paying’ it means that the payments were made in the same interval last year as well.

• Refiners are paying 5$ more for crude oil than they did (pay) last year.

The simple past tense (did) here tells us that this action happened once in the past. So, the refiners are paying 5$ more than they paid last year. It means that last year there was only one payment of X dollars and this year the refiners are paying ‘X+5’ dollars weekly/monthly/quarterly.


Hope this helps!
Manyu

Despite going through the whole thread, i'm stuck on one specific point about option E. I can see why E is wrong because of the usage of "more than" but I picked E because of "heating-oil prices will rise higher this year than last year's..."

I felt that "year's" had to be a possessive because we are saying that " oil prices will rise higher this year than last year's oil prices" and we are NOT saying that "prices will higher than last year" because that would mean that we are comparing prices to year which is illogical.

Can someone please explain why my analysis is incorrect?

For the most part, if last year's had to be correct, there should have been a similar structure on the left hand side of the comparison operator (than); something along the following lines:

...this year's heating-oil prices are expected to be higher than last year's...

Also, there is a significant meaning change that E introduces; original sentence is not talking about how much prices will rise this year (as E suggests); original sentence talks about how much the prices are expected to be this year.
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The crux of the problem lies in the fact that we are comparing what refiners are paying this year with what they were paying last year. Here the 'paying' part is elided in the second arm. Please note the parallelism of progressive tense ‘are paying’ and ‘were paying’ in choices A and D.
Therefore, all choices that use the simple past tense ‘did’ are out. Between A and D, D has a problem of saying on one hand that it is an expectation and then a categorical 'will be higher'. Both are antithetical.
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i have a doubt here...

If the original sentence were to read as below ,would that be correct?

Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they did last year?
sayantanc2k
chetan2u

Yes, simple past (did = paid) instead of past continuous (were paying) would also be alright. Note that in option A past continuous has been used ("were paying" - "paying" is omitted).

I do not follow the explanation for this question.

Can somebody please explain why this sentence is correct (original)?

Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were last year.
My doubts are in these two phrases: "this year than last" and " more for crude oil than they were last year "

Thanks!!

Dear spc11,
I'm happy to respond.

My friend, you may find some answer to your question in the thread above, but I am happy to discuss this as well. One very tricky issue, particularly difficult for folks whose native language is something other than English, is the issue of dropping repeated words in the second branch of parallelism. See this blog article:
Dropping Common Words in Parallel on the GMAT

Consider an expanded version of the sentence:
Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than the heating oil prices last year because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were paying for a barrel of crude oil last year.
That is the whole sentence, with absolutely nothing omitted, so that everything is perfectly clear. The GMAT would consider this completely redundant and much longer than necessary, because every single word in red is repeated. The words in red are words in the second branch or the parallelism that already appeared in the first branch. From the GMAT's point of view, it is redundant to repeat information in the second branch that we already know form the first branch. Thus, the GMAT recommends dropping all the words in red: when we do that, we get the prompt version, choice (A), of this SC problem, a sleek and elegant sentence. The GMAT loves elegance.

Your job on the GMAT SC is to see a sentence with the words already omitted in the second branch of parallelism and to figure out what words from the first branch would be needed to make sense of the second branch.

Does all this make sense?
Mike
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