Nihit wrote:
Retailers reported moderate gains in their November sales, as much because of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that shoppers were getting a head start on buying their holiday gifts.
(A) of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that
(B) of their sales a year earlier having been as bad as because
(C) of their sales a year earlier being as bad as because
(D) their sales a year earlier had been so bad as because
(E) their sales of a year earlier were as bad as that
D is the only correct option here. This question tests verb tense, idiom and parallelism. "As much as" should be a correct idiom here. Also, 2 events are being discussed here so the earlier event has to be in past perfect.
(A) of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that ---being makes no sense here.
(B) of their sales a year earlier having been
as bad as because --- we cannot have As much ... as ... as .
(C) of their sales a year earlier being
as bad as because ------ we cannot have As much ... as ... as .
(D) their sales a year earlier
had been so bad as because
(E) their sales of a year earlier were
as bad as that[/quote] --- we cannot have As much ... as ... as .
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