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705-805 Level|   Comparisons|   Comparisons|            
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ThatIndianGuy
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Officials at the United States Mint believe that the Sacagawea dollar 07 Jan 2024, 22:08
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Officials at the United States Mint believe that the Sacagawea dollar coin will be used more as a substitute for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1 grams, is far less than four quarters, which weigh 5.67 grams each.


(A) more as a substitute for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1 grams, is far less than

(B) more as a substitute for four quarters than the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far lighter than

(C) as a substitute for four quarters more than for the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far less than

(D) as a substitute for four quarters more than the dollar bill because its weight of only 8.1 grams is far lighter than it is for

(E) as a substitute more for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1 grams, is far less than it is for

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Hi GMATNinja

(C) as a substitute for four quarters more than for the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far less than

In Choice C, isn't "far less than" modifying "8.1 grams" as it is placed right next to it. If this is the case, it would mean that the coin weighs 8.1 grams and this weight is far less than four quarters. Which is illogical.

SHall the phrase "8.1 grams" be put within commas to avoid this error?

Please explain
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Officials at the United States Mint believe that the Sacagawea dollar 12 Jan 2024, 15:55
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Hi GMATNinja

(C) as a substitute for four quarters more than for the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far less than

In Choice C, isn't "far less than" modifying "8.1 grams" as it is placed right next to it. If this is the case, it would mean that the coin weighs 8.1 grams and this weight is far less than four quarters. Which is illogical.

SHall the phrase "8.1 grams" be put within commas to avoid this error?

Please explain
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Check out these posts from earlier in the thread, and if they don't help, just let us know:

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Officials at the United States Mint believe that the Sacagawea dollar 24 Jan 2024, 00:36
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Hi GMATNinja -
Is the comparison at the end of the option C correct? ...because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far less than four quarters (isn't the comparison happening between 8.1 grams and 4 quarters?) Please help.


GMATNinja
Well, the first thing I notice here is the pronouns, "its" and "it." I really want to say that the pronoun is ambiguous, because it could refer back to "dollar bill" (which is the closest singular noun) or the Sacagawea dollar coin.

But we can't do anything about the "it" or "its" -- it's in all five answer choices, so it can't really be much of an issue. Plus, pronoun ambiguity is NOT an absolute rule on the GMAT. We'll say more about that in an upcoming Topic of the Week.

I guess I can't get any quick eliminations from the pronouns, so let's take these guys in order:

Quote:
A) more as a substitute for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1 grams, is far less than
I don't like the comparison idiom here: "more as a substitute for four quarters rather than for..." But if you're not sure about the idiom, look for other stuff. (Check out this thread for more on idioms.)

The bigger issue is that the final comparison in the sentence doesn't make sense: "its weight... is far less than four quarters." We could say that the weight of the coin is less than the weight of the quarters, but it doesn't make sense to say that the weight of the coin is less than the quarters themselves. (A) is gone.

Quote:
B) more as a substitute for four quarters than the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far lighter than
I think I would be a little bit happier if the first comparison said "more as a substitute for four quarters than FOR the dollar bill" -- the second "for" is missing, and that bugs me a little bit. But I'm not 100% sure that it's wrong.

More importantly: at the end of the sentence, it's saying that the coin "weighs 8.1 grams, far lighter than four quarters." You could say "the coin IS far lighter than four quarters" or "it weighs less than four quarters", but not "it weighs lighter than four quarters." Eliminate (B).

Quote:
C) as a substitute for four quarters more than for the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far less than
I like that first comparison: "as a substitute for four quarters more than for the dollar bill" -- nice parallelism in the comparison, much better than in (A) or (B). More importantly, the last part makes sense now: "it weighs... far less than..." Keep (C).

Quote:
D) as a substitute for four quarters more than the dollar bill because its weight of only 8.1 grams is far lighter than it is for
As in (A) and (B), I think the first comparison idiom would be much stronger if "for" was included before "the dollar bill." But the last part of the sentence is a bigger problem: "(the coin's) weight is far lighter than it is for four quarters..."?? At the very least, this is a wordy mess compared with (C). You could also argue that it's nonsense: if "it" refer's back to "the coin's weight", then the sentence becomes illogical ("the coin's weight is lighter than the coin's weight is for four quarters").

Either way, (C) is clearly better than (D), so (D) is gone.

Quote:
E) as a substitute more for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1 grams, is far less than it is for
First part of the underlined portion suffers from the same idiom issue as in (A). The second part of the underlined portion is similar to (D): "the coin's weight... is far less than it is for four quarters." Again, at the very least, this is wordier and inferior to (C); at worst, it's illogical.

(C) is our winner.
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Officials at the United States Mint believe that the Sacagawea dollar 16 Feb 2024, 12:53
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Hi GMATNinja -

Is the comparison at the end of the option C correct? ...because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far less than four quarters (isn't the comparison happening between 8.1 grams and 4 quarters?) Please help.
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Sorry that we missed your question in the waning days of SC!

RIP SC, but in case you're still curious about this one (or taking the EA, where SC will live on for... a while), here are a few posts from earlier in the thread that might help:
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Officials at the United States Mint believe that the Sacagawea dollar 05 Nov 2025, 05:47
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how is 'more than for' a correct sentence structure?
egmat

'Idiomatic usage' of comparison markers



Is 'idiomatic usage' of comparison markers a good way to eliminate options in questions that test comparisons?

My answer: not so much. The problem with focusing on idiomatic usage to analyze options is that our understanding of ‘typically’ correct idioms interferes with our understanding of the meaning that the option conveys. You need to be particularly careful about understanding the intended logic of the sentence when it makes a comparison.

Let's look at this official question to illustrate this point. I'd especially like to focus on why we can't argue that the correct answer is not 'really' correct because it doesn't use the "more X than Y" construction.

Officials at the United States Mint believe that the Sacagawea dollar coin will be used more as a substitute for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1 grams, is far less than four quarters, which weigh 5.67 grams each.

A) more as a substitute for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1 grams, is far less than
B) more as a substitute for four quarters than the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far lighter than
C) as a substitute for four quarters more than for the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 grams, far less than
D) as a substitute for four quarters more than the dollar bill because its weight of only 8.1 grams is far lighter than it is for
E) as a substitute more for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1 grams, is far less than it is for

Here’s how I would go about understanding this question. The original sentence contains a comparison that is expressed using the comparison marker ‘more than’. Okay, so my focus needs to be on whether the comparison makes logical sense in the original sentence. If it does, I know I need a correct answer that doesn’t change the intended logic. But if it doesn’t make sense in the original sentence, then I need to infer the correct logic from the original sentence, and then look for an answer that also uses the correct intended meaning.

So far so good. Let’s do the meaning analysis.

Meaning Analysis

Since we're looking at the use of ‘more than’, I’m going to focus only on the comparison in this meaning analysis.

Officials at the United States Mint believe that the Sacagawea dollar coin will be used more as a substitute for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1 grams, is far less than four quarters, which weigh 5.67 grams each.

So the original sentence has two comparisons:

1. the Sacagawea dollar coin will be used more as a substitute for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill => Comparison between ‘four quarters’ and ‘the dollar bill’
2. its weight... is far less than four quarters => Comparison between ‘its weight’ and ‘four quarters’

While the first comparison is logically correct, the second clearly isn’t. ‘Weight’ can’t be compared to ‘quarters’. The weight of something can logically be compared only with the weight of something else.



Error Analysis

Comparison errors in this sentence:

1. the Sacagawea dollar coin will be used more as a substitute for four quarters rather than for the dollar bill => ‘More’ can’t be followed by ‘rather than’. ‘More’ indicates a comparison while ‘rather than’ is used to show contrast. Note that in the case of option A, it is perfectly fine to eliminate the option based on the usage of ‘more than’ compared to the usage of ‘rather than’. This is because the two phrases are used for different purposes. We already know from our meaning analysis that this sentence is making a comparison, not a contrast. So ‘rather than’ is out.
2. its weight... is far less than four quarters => Illogical comparison between ‘its weight’ and ‘four quarters’.

Process of Elimination:

As I've done above, I’m going to focus on the comparison issue to eliminate choices.

Option A: INCORRECT as discussed.

Option B: INCORRECT.

1. Comparison Error: ‘More as a substitute for four quarters than the dollar bill’ => This comparison is ambiguous. It could mean one of two things:

i) The dollar coin will be used more as a substitute for four quarters than the dollar bill WILL. => Comparison between the dollar coin and the dollar bill.
ii) The dollar coin will be used more as a substitute for four quarters than FOR the dollar bill. => Comparison between four quarters and the dollar bill.

So you can see, there’s no justification for applying the ‘more X than Y’ logic here. In fact, I would say it’s a misconception that this use is ‘idiomatic’. Saying so implies that this structure is always correct, whereas really, it’s correct only when it conveys the intended logic correctly.

Option C: CORRECT

This choice says that the dollar coin will be used as a substitute for four quarters more than FOR the dollar bill. So, it clearly resolves the ambiguity present in option B.

Option D: INCORRECT

1. Comparison Error: ‘For’ is missing, leading to ambiguity.

Option E: INCORRECT

1. Comparison Error: ‘More’ is followed by ‘rather than’.

So, as you can see, going by idiomatic usage is unlikely to be the best way to solve a comparison question. Focusing on the logic behind the comparison is the way to go.

I hope these observations help. :-)

Meghna
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