haardiksharma wrote:
All major Canadian cities reported significantly higher hotel occupancy in the four months from June through September last year than that of a similar period a year earlier.
(A) that of a similar period
(B) a similar period
(C) those of a similar period's
(D) during a similar period
(E) that during a similar period
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
This problem directly tests parallelism in a comparison: when drawing a comparison, the items being compared must be logically (the proverbial "apples to apples" comparison) and grammatically parallel.
Choice B commits the most common type of comparison error: it's comparing
occupancy to "
a similar period" last year. You cannot compare "
occupancy" to "
period," so B is incorrect.
Choices A, C, and E all try to correct that error using a possessive (that of, those of, 's, etc.), but in doing so still fail to draw a logical, parallel comparison. What is being possessed by the period? The comparison begins with "Canadian cities reported...", which is not possession, so the possessive choices are all incorrect.
Choice D draws a proper comparison. With the verbiage in B, you have:
Canadian cities reported higher hotel occupancy:
1) in this periodthan
2) during a similar period last yearNote that each portion is logically equivalent (you're comparing
period to period) and grammatically equivalent (each has a preposition - "
in" or "
during" - and then describes the period). For this reason, choice D is correct.