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E-correctly draws comparsions between Holland and US

E !

Do you have any new question ? These questions are rotten old ...

Swagatalakshmi maybe you are looking in the wrong places for SC practice or maybe you've had enuf practice for now.... go write a book on SC or something. And offer it to GMATClubbers at a discount?

BTW goalsnr I really miss your avatar. I thought it was cool.

In Holland, a larger percentage of the gross national product is spent on defense of their coasts from rising seas than is spent on military defense in the United States.

(A) In Holland, a larger percentage of the gross national product is spent on defense of their coasts from rising seas than is spent on military defense in the United States.
(B) In Holland they spend a larger percentage of their gross national product on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense.
(C) A larger percentage of Holland’s gross national product is spent on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States spends on military defense.
(D) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product defending its coasts from rising seas than the military defense spending of the United States.
(E) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product on defending its coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense.

Can youpeople please tell me is there any comparison error in option A

Hi skamal7

(A) In Holland, a larger percentage of the gross national product is spent on defense of their coasts from rising seas than is spent on military defense in the United States.

A has two problems:

Problem #1: Meaning
The structure is: In Holland, a larger percentage of GDP is spent on X than is spent on Y in the U.S ==> The sentence seems to convey the meaning: Holland spends a larger percentage of its GDP on defense of its coasts than on its (Holland's) military (in the U.S). That's not the intended meaning.

Problem #2: Pronoun
Holland is singular ==> "their coasts" is incorrect.

Hope it helps.

IMO - E

In Holland, a larger percentage of the gross national product is spent on defense of their coasts from rising seas than is spent on military defense in the United States.

(A) In Holland, a larger percentage of the gross national product is spent on defense of their coasts from rising seas than is spent on military defense in the United States. >> defending is correct one.
(B) In Holland they spend a larger percentage of their gross national product on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense. >> correct is it
(C) A larger percentage of Holland's gross national product is spent on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States spends on military defense. >> see B
(D) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product defending its coasts from rising seas than the military defense spending of the United States. >> wrongly comparing Holland with the military defense spending of US
(E) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product on defending its coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense. >> CORRECT comparison

In Comparison problems, the key is to understand crystal-clear what elements are being compared. Here the sentence intends to make a comparison between:

- How much Holland spends on defense of its coasts from rising seas as a percentage of its gross national product
Vs.
- How much the US spends on military defense as a percentage of its gross national product


Answer choice E is the only one that draws this parallelism (and yes, comparison is actually a subset of parallelism)


Answer choice A is ludicrous. It nonsensically implies that Holland spend part of its gross national product in both a- defense of its coasts from rising seas and b- military defense on United States.

But for me "Holland spends" seems wrong because a country can't do human actions. It sounds better: In Holland they spend.
Am I right?

Notice here that Holland is used as a collective noun here representing people in it.
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(A) In Holland, a larger percentage of the gross national product is spent on defense of their coasts from rising seas than is spent on military defense in the United States.
Pronoun Number Agreement Error. Incorrect!

(B) In Holland they spend a larger percentage of their gross national product on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense.
Pronoun Number Agreement Error. Incorrect!

(C) A larger percentage of Holland's gross national product is spent on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States spends on military defense.
Pronoun Number Agreement Error. Incorrect!

(D) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product defending its coasts from rising seas than the military defense spending of the United States.
Here the intended comparison is wrong. Choice E corrects that.

(E) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product on defending its coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense.
Correct!

(A) In Holland, a larger percentage of the gross national product is spent on defense of their coasts from rising seas than is spent on military defense in the United States.

(B) In Holland they spend a larger percentage of their gross national product on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense.

(C) A larger percentage of Holland's gross national product is spent on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States spends on military defense.

(D) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product defending its coasts from rising seas than the military defense spending of the United States. - Meaning issue. Incorrect comparison. We need to compare a clause to another clause.

(E) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product on defending its coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense.

The pronoun that is required here to refer to Holland is ‘it’. We can use this to eliminate most of the options.

We can scan the options for 'its':

(A) In Holland, a larger percentage of the gross national product is spent on defense of their coasts from rising seas than is spent on military defense in the United States.

(B) In Holland they spend a larger percentage of their gross national product on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense.

(C) A larger percentage of Holland's gross national product is spent on defending their coasts from rising seas than the United States spends on military defense.

(D) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product defending its coasts from rising seas than the military defense spending of the United States.

(E) Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product on defending its coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense.

Eliminate Options A, B and C.

Option D incorrectly compares Holland with ‘the military defense spending’. Eliminate.

Option E is the best choice.

Hope this helps!
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Here's the official explanation provided by the GMAC for this question:

The comparison between Holland and the United States is not clear because it is not parallel; making the comparison parallel eliminates the other problems in the sentence, such as the use of a plural pronoun (their) without a referent. Starting the sentence Holland spends makes the emphasis clear. To be parallel, the comparison should be: Holland spends more x on y than the United States spends on z. The grammatical structure is the same in each clause: the country is the subject; spends and does (spend understood) are the verbs; (x) the percentage of gross national product is the point of comparison; and (y) on defending… and (z) on military defense are parallel phrases completing the sentence.

Option A: Lack of parallelism leads this sentence to say that part of Holland’s gross national product is spent on military defense in the United States; their has no referent

Option B: In Holland they spend is not parallel to the United States spends; they has no referent

Option C: A… percentage… is spent on is not parallel to the United States spends

Option D: The clause Holland spends… is not parallel to the phrase the military defense spending of the United States

Option E: Correct. This sentence has two parallel clauses that make the comparison clear and easily understood.

The correct answer is E.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.
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