The question of whether to divest themselves of stock in companies tha

Question

The question of whether to divest themselves of stock in companies that do business in South Africa is particularly troublesome for the nation’s 116 private Black colleges because their economic bases are often more fragile  than  most predominantly White colleges.

(A) than

(B) than those of

(C) than is so of

(D) compared to

(E) compared to those of

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/25/us/black-college-is-pressed-to-take-costly-step.html

The issues confronting the Spelman trustees are particularly troublesome for the nation's 116 private black colleges. Because many of the schools are far poorer  than  more prestigious, predominantly white institutions, their officials say endowments involve comparatively small dollar amounts and fewer investments linked to South Africa. Yet because the schools' economic bases are often more fragile, the consequences of any divestment are weighed carefully.

I have a question here
it is mentioned in OG "both D and E use the unidiomatic and redundant  more...........compared to 
When we use 'compared to', do we just compare similarities/ differences between two objects rather than which object is more x (say fragile in the above sentence) than the other object? 
Please provide me the resource if you have any to justify the answer.

walkman4mba · Accepted Answer

(A) than 
(B) than those of
(C) than is so of
(D) compared to
(E) compared to those of

Answer "B"

When you perform comparisons you need to make sure that the left side is correctly compared to right side. Let's dissect the question stem...
The question of whether to divest themselves of stock in companies that do business in South Africa is particularly troublesome for  the nation’s 116 private Black colleges because their economic bases  are often more fragile than most  predominantly White colleges.

A comparison is being performed between the "economic bases" of the nation's 116 private Black colleges and Predominant white colleges. Is the comparison correct? NO, how can you compare the economic bases with Predominant white colleges, however, you can compare the economic bases of the nation's 116 private black colleges with  those of  the Predominant white colleges.

Compared To Vs Compared With:
Compared to is used to compare two dissimilar things
Compared with is used to show the similarities or dissimilarities between two things. Should we not be using Compared with here since we actually mean to compare the economic basis between the two college communities.

Hero8888 · Answer

When you see -re (more, better etc) you have to use "than" only

vannu · Answer

I know that B is the right choice.

I was confused about the usage of comparative form and 'compared to' in the same sentence.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

The intention here is a comparison between two things – Economic bases of Black colleges and economic bases of White colleges. ‘Than’ seems to be okay here as the right idiom. The error seems to be in the comparison that is being made.
 
Let’s look at the question again:

… is particularly troublesome for the nation’s 116 private Black colleges because  their economic bases are often more fragile   than  most  predominantly White colleges .

We can see here that the economic bases of Black colleges are compared with White colleges – This is the problem. 
We need to find an option that rectifies this issue.

(A) than
 The problem here is that of faulty comparison as stated above.   Eliminate.

(B) than those of
 This corrects the error in the original sentence. Here the comparison then is between the economic bases of Black colleges and economic bases   of White colleges. This is the best choice.

(C) than is so of
 This is the wrong idiom and structure.   Eliminate.

(D) compared to
 This expression is used when you want to highlight the similarities between two distinct things. 
For instance, love is often compared to a rose. 
In any case, the use of this idiom is redundant here when the comparison is already set up in the structure of the sentence.    Eliminate.

(E) compared to those of
 Same reason as Option D.   Eliminate.

Hope this helps!

dabaobao · Answer

(A) than  - Wrong: 1) Comparison

(B) than those of  - Correct

(C) than is so of  - Wrong: 1) Parallelism

(D) compared to  - Wrong: 1) Idiom 2) Comparison

(E) compared to those of  - Wrong: 1) Idiom

VerbalBot · Answer

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The question of whether to divest themselves of stock in companies tha

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The question of whether to divest themselves of stock in companies tha

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