Manhattan Prep Official Explanation
The intent of the sentence is to compare counterfeiting today to counterfeiting in the past, using difficulty as the measure. In the original sentence, the comparison is correctly drawn between “today…counterfeiting is” and “it [counterfeiting] was at the time of the Civil War.” Additionally, the use of “despite” accurately conveys the main point that although some new technologies are available, counterfeiting is nevertheless more difficult than it once was.
(A) CORRECT. The original sentence is correct as written.
(B) The intent of the sentence is to compare counterfeiting today to counterfeiting in the past. In this sentence, the placement of “today” after “high resolution scanners and printers” could lead to a misunderstanding about what occurs “today”: the equipment, or perhaps the wide availability of the equipment, rather than the counterfeiting itself.
(C) This sentence is missing “today,” which clearly indicated in the original sentence when the counterfeiting with scanners and printers occurs. The first instance of the pronoun "it" has also been dropped, creating an illogical comparison between an act, “counterfeiting,” and a time, “at the time of the Civil War.” A correct comparison could have been between “today” and “the time of the Civil War”: “…counterfeiting is more difficult today than at the time of the Civil War…”
(D) An illogical comparison is made between an act, “counterfeiting,” and a time, “when it was estimated.”
(E) The point of the original sentence is that counterfeiting is more difficult today “despite,” not “because of,” the technology that is available.