In the United States, trade unions encountered far more intense opposi

In the United States, trade unions encountered far more intense opposition against their struggle for social legitimacy than the organized labor movements of most other democratic nations.

(A) against their struggle for social legitimacy than
(B) in their struggle for social legitimacy than did
(C) against their struggle for social legitimacy as
(D) in their struggle for social legitimacy as did
(E) when they struggled for social legitimacy than has

"far more" requires the word "than" to complete the comparison We can eliminate (C) and (D)

trade unions "encountered" more than the organized labor movements ... "encountered"
The word that can substitute for "encountered" is "did" or an omitted "encountered. (E) is out, also "has" does not pair with "movements"

(A) and (B) are left. I think (B) is better when I rephrase this sentence.
In their struggle for social legitimacy, trade unions encountered far more intense opposition than did the organized labor movements of most other democratic nations.

Ans: (B)

Official Explanation:

In A and C, against is awkward and redundant because the idea of the resistance met by the trade unions is already established by the phrase encountered ... opposition. Additionally, the failure in A and C to include did makes the I comparisons in those choices incomplete, allowing the misreading that trade unions in the United States encountered the organized labor movements of other nations. Choices C and D both incorrectly use more ... as to make a comparison; the idiomatic form of this expression is "more x than y." Choice B is best, both idiomatic and unambiguous. Choice E is awkward, and the singular verb has does not agree with the plural subject of the clause, labor movements.

POE:

"Against" becomes redundant when used with the word - "opposition". Also, since we are doing the comparison, then "than" is preferred.

Based on meaning:
Trade unions are not struggling against social legitimacy.
They are struggling for social legitimacy.
Based on the above A & C can be eliminated.

Choice E is wordy and awkward. Eliminated.

Now we are left with B & D.
Than did vs as did: than did correctly compares the trade unions of one country to another.

Hence B is the correct answer.

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Hi KarishmaB AndrewN hope you are doing well! Although I selected the correct answer choice, I want to make sure that my reasoning3 was correct. It will be immensely helpful if you can review my analysis and provide your comments on it.

(A) against their struggle for social legitimacy than The opposition that the trade unions encountered was not against their struggle but in their struggle, and also opposition and against are redundant
(B) in their struggle for social legitimacy than did This is the correct answer choice, however, I want to understand that can we literally remove did with encountered or did just acts as a reference for the verb ?
(C) against their struggle for social legitimacy as We need more... than not more... as
(D) in their struggle for social legitimacy as did Same as C
(E) when they struggled for social legitimacy than has When is not correct, also has is incorrect

Your response will be much appreciated.

Hello, RohitSaluja. Your analysis looks sound. In answer choice (B), did is acting as a substitute verb for the earlier encountered, since the comparison is between the degree of opposition faced by one group, trade unions in the United States, and another, the organized labor movements of most other democratic nations. Such usage is quite common on the GMAT™. In fact, I just wrote a post the other day on the matter and linked to several official questions in which some form of to do appears in this manner. It is worth checking out to see how GMAC™ likes to test this type of comparison.

Well done on your analysis. Thank you for thinking to ask for my input.

- Andrew

'did' substitutes 'encountered'

Correct usages:

X is more A than Y. (comparing X with Y in a particular characteristic: X is bigger than Y. X is more intelligent than Y. etc)

X encountered more A than did Y. (comparing the amount of A encountered by the two. X encountered more opposition than did Y. We need a substitute verb here with Y. We are not comparing X with Y. We are comparing the amount of A encountered by each.)
We can also write this as "X encountered more A than Y encountered" but we rarely repeat the verb since it sounds clumsy. We use just the substitute 'did' for it.

A of X is greater than that of Y. (comparing the A's of both)
The neck of X is longer than that of Y (comparing the necks of both)

Hi Rohit, AndrewN and KarishmaB have already answered your query.

I would like to add that while in this question, did is in the past tense and so is "encountered", do/did/does can in fact substitute for almost any action verb in any tense.

For example, following is correct:

Michael has never run as fast as his father did.

Notice that "did" is substituting for the simple past "ran", even though the first half of the sentence is in present perfect ("has run").

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses this aspect of "to do" verbs. Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

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