IMO, E is correct.

At first, we split between "like" and "such as". Which one is better in this case. IMO, "like" is better because if we say countries like India and China, we do NOT mention that these countries are exactly India and China, just countries that have the same characteristics as those of India and China.
For example:
(1) I have a couple of tablets like ipad and Amazon kindle ==> my tablets just like ipad and kindle in terms of functions, design, etc.., they are not ipads or kindles
(2) I have a couple of tablets such as ipad and kindle ==> my tablets are ipad and kindle.

ANALYZE EACH ANSWER:

a)More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations like India and China.
Wrong.. Any of its competitors is singular ==> "Has" is correct

b)More than has any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, has staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.
Wrong.. "has" is not main verb. Moreover, "has staked" changes meaning.

c)More so than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations such as India and China.
Wrong.. Not parallel, and a little bit vague as I mentioned above.

d)More than any of its competitors have, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations such as India and China.
Wrong. Any of its competitors is singular ==> "Has" is correct

e)More than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.
Correct.
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In addition to what HumptyDumpty wrote , I would like to add that in C, the fact that the company intends to bring shale gas from Arctic and energy hungry countries such as India and China, is antithetical to the intended meaning. Countries like India and China are consumers, but not suppliers of shale gas. The idiomatic expression is from ... to and not from .... and. So C is out. This leaves E.
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For this question there are only two steps:

1) First the idiom: "from...to" you narrow down to B and E
2) Second,look at B first, see that it is not parallel "More than has X, Y has blablabla..."

Answer E
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Sorry, should have been more precise.

Look at B:

b)More than has any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, has staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.

Here it is like this: "More than has X, Y, which Z, has staked..." And it is not correct. It should have been, "More than has any of its competitors, Y staked..."

You need to have a logical construction here, otherwise it does not make any sense. The parrallel structure is also necessary when you use like (or such as) at the end of the sentence.

e)More than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.

Here, the structure is correct "More than any of X, Y is staking..."

Hope its clear
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Dear harshdeep12,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

My friend, many Veritas questions are wonderful. I think this one is atrocious. It's tagged as Veritas: I don't know whether that is true.

One screaming issue that is not addressed is the "like" vs. "such as" split for listing examples. All five answer choices have "formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic"--embarrassing! A few answer choices have "energy-hungry nations such as India and China," but the OA has "energy-hungry nations like India and China"--not GMAT-like at all!

It's bizarre that the whole sentence is underlined, even though a few words at the beginning and end are the same in all five answer choices. That's also not GMAT-like.

Choice (B) has the unnecessary "has" in the first clause--"More than has any of its competitors." It appears the source believes this is reason to prefer (B) to (E). It's true that the word "has" is not necessary and it's a little awkward to include it, but it's odd that the choice between these two choices rests only on this one detail, especially since other details are incorrect. For such a long prompt, only niggling little details are changed among the five answer choices: there aren't large scale structure changes, as there typically would be on the GMAT if the whole sentence were underlined. There are a variety of ways in which this question falls short of the ideal established by the GMAT.

This is a very poor question. As a general rule, I don't think it helps to dive into the logic of poorly designed questions.

Here's a high quality SC practice question:
Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
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Dear Mo2men,

Good to hear from you, my friend. I'm happy to respond.

Yes, the "from" ==> "to" construction is necessary and appears in only (B) & (E). That's why I only discussed those two. The "has" in (B) is not "missing" anything. This is a grammatically correct ellipsis, and what has been omitted is not a direct object but the main verb. If anything, the "has" is awkward because it's not necessary--it too can be omitted!

As indicated above, I find strong reasons to reject all five answer choices and the question itself.

The word "any" is very trick. In a purely logical analysis, it would seem to imply "any one" and so demand a singular verb. In practice, though, it does take plural verbs. I could say either version:
I don't know whether any single friend of mine is coming to the party.
I don't know whether any of my friends are coming to the party.
The former is a little more emphatic, implying that I will be surprised if even one friend shows up. The second indicates the uncertain action of multiple members in a group.

In this sentence, either could be correct.
More than have any of its competitors . . .
More than has any of its competitors . . .
These have different emphases, different implications, but neither is "wrong" from a grammatical perspective.

Does all this make sense?

Take care, my friend.
Mike
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Dear Mo2men,

My friend, as a general rule, the GMAT steers clear of controversy. If something is controversial, it will not be tested directly on the GMAT.

For example, a far more controversial topic is splitting an infinitive. Grammatical conservatives, such as I, avoid this, while grammatical liberals think that it's perfectly fine: one can find rants for both view on the web. The GMAT would never test this, although every once in a while, a split infinitive will appear in an answer choice that is incorrect for other reasons.

I suspect that, in similar fashion, anything that the GMAT considered wrong in the usage of "any" would appear only in answer choices incorrect for other definitive reasons. In other words, this would not be a deciding split.

Does all this make sense, my friend?
Mike :-)
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HimG15 , have you read the posts above, especially those from mikemcgarry ?

If not, please read this post, then Mo2men 's reply, and finally, mikemcgarry 's response.

If you have read them, and you still feel lost, I will be happy to try to help.
I have very little to add to Mike McGarry 's insightful analysis.

I will emphasize: No real GMAT question would hang by a thread this thin.
(And it would not use the word "like" to list examples!)

Try not to worry about this question.

All due respect to Veritas: everyone gets it wrong sometimes.

This question is not a good practice tool.


Your instincts were good; the question bothered you.

I hope that helps. If it does not, ask again, perhaps with a little more specificity?
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Hey rajatkataria14@gmail.com ,

I think you missed the elements of comparison in the sentence.

The correct idiom is More than X, Y where X and Y must be ||.

Now, As per the meaning of the sentence, we are comparing Dynacorp with its competitors.

So, in B my X is "has any of its competitors" and Y is "Dynacorp".

This is wrong. We are not comparing any clause with the company. Hence, B is wrong.

Does that make sense?
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