hkm_gmat wrote:
In the late 19th century, when Vassar was a small, recently founded women's college, founding professor and astronomer Maria Mitchell taught as many astronomy majors in a given year as there are today, when Vassar is a much larger, co-educational college.
(A) when Vassar was a small, recently founded women's college, founding professor and astronomer Maria Mitchell taught as many astronomy majors in a given year as there are today, when
(B) when Vassar was a small, recently founded women's college, in a given year, founding professor and astronomer Maria Mitchell taught just as many astronomy majors as there are in a given year today, when
(C) while Vassar was a small, recently founded women's college, founding professor and astronomer Maria Mitchell taught a number of astronomy majors in a given year such as there are today, when
(D) while Vassar was a small, recently founded women's college, founding professor and astronomer Maria Mitchell taught such a number of astronomy majors in a given year as are there today, whereas
(E) when Vassar was a small, recently founded women's college, founding professor and astronomer Maria Mitchell taught a number of astronomy majors just as large in a given year as the number that is there today, while
KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:
A
In a complicated sentence like this, it"s probably best to focus on eliminating wrong answers. There are some wrong phrases that are obvious, for instance, the awkward, unidiomatic ''such a number of Astronomy majors in o given year as there are today," in (D). There's also the confusing "a number of Astronomy majors such as there are today/' in (C). It's unclear what that phrase means, and (C) also begins with the illogical "while." Looking at the other choices,, you see that (B. is both awkward and confusing. The meaning of "as many. ..as there are in a given year today" is unclear, and (6) also makes Mitchell a "founding professor/' whatever that is. (E) has the bizarre locution "a number. ..just as large as the number that is there today." This is both awkward and ungrammatical; "the number that are there" would at least be correct.
Notice how much text is underlined in this sentence. These will only be a few such questions in each section, and they're good ones to ta k a quick guess on if you're pressed for time.