The country’s Commerce secretary says that spending on fuel subsidies

The country’s Commerce secretary says that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared to about $20 billion in last year.

A)that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion in last year
The 'in' in '$20 Billion in last year' is superfluous.
B)that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, and that is compared to about $20 billion last year
'and that is compared to' is redundant
C)spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion last year
Looks good. Hold it.
D)spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion reached in last year
'reached in' is superfluous.
E)spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, and that is compared to about $20 billion reached last year
'that is compared to about' is superfluous.

Thus, I chose option C.

Hello YangYichen
and sayantanc2k, WaterFlowsUp, Abhishek009, mikemcgarry, carcass, daagh, Skywalker18, chetan2u, CrackVerbalGMAT, VeritasPrepKarishma and others moderators...

You are correct YangYichen, the option A is messed up. The correct question is:
The country’s Commerce secretary says that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared to about $20 billion in last year.
that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared to about $20 billion in last year
that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, and that is compared to about $20 billion last year
spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion last year <- CORRECT
spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion reached in last year
spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, and that is compared to about $20 billion reached last year

I do see your point YangYichen that "$20 billion in last year" creates illogical meaning as $20B cannot be inside a year. However, if the option would have been "$20B in 2012" ie we used 2012 instead of last year, would it be correct ? Just this phrase not the complete option or question.
Would this be correct: "$20B in 2012" vs "$20B in last year" ?

Finally YangYichen, thanks for responding. I really appreciate your help to clarify my difficulty. Thanks a lot.

YangYichen
Thanks for responding. I appreciate your help to clarify my difficulty. Thanks a lot.

The comparison is done between two values of spending or between the spending of year 2013 and $20 billion.
I am of the opinion that option C compares 'spending' with '$20 billion' which is corrected in Option D with the addition of 'reached in'.
What am I missing?

Hi, please explain in brief about the redundancy of the word 'in' in option C. How is option C better than option A

Hi,
Can you kindly explain the redundancy of the word 'in' in option A. Had the sentence be that spending on fuel subsidies could reach $40 billion dollars in 2013, compared with about $20 billion in 2012, would that be correct.

Hii, Can somebody post the officia solution by Veritas because it will help to better analyze errors

A simple way to quickly answer this question correctly:

'Compared with' is used to compare things similar to each other - Money compared with money
'Compared to' is used to compare things that are different to each other

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Hii Experts,
As I have seen wordiness is very rare reason to eliminate answer choice.It is mostly logical or grammatical error. I am not able to eliminate option A() and (C). There is extra in A. I don't understand why c is better than a

Bunuel

pls change option A.

_____________________
Fixed that. Thank you.

Comparison is between 40 billion and 20 billion
C is more crisp in providing intended meaning using few words as compared to D

How do we know when to use "compare to" vs "compare with"

A and B should not have included ‘that’ , as they are using ‘spending’ as a noun, not verb.

In D ‘reached in last year’ is missing a ‘the’ after ‘in’. Soits wrong

‘and that is’ is not right in this context, so E is wrong.



This leaves us with C as the right answer.

veritas offer many good questions and is now going to the top of quality. but I dont like this question. concison is seldom the only reason to eliminate a choice

Official explanation
Solution: C
Explanation: In this problem, the choice between “compared with” and “compared to” may stick out, but it is not the type of decision point that you should focus on. Typically, “compared with” is used to show differences (as in this case) and “compared to” is used to emphasize similarities. More importantly, you need to focus on whether the comparison is logical and structurally correct. The goal is simply to compare the amount in 2013 with the amount last year. First, you cannot say “$20 billion in last year” in (A) and (D) as that is illogical and should be “$20 billion last year”. In (B) and (E) there is a reference error with “that” – what is the “that” referring to – it is not clear and creates an imprecise and illogical comparison. Answer is (C).

In option C, can someone please tell me if the line 'compared with about $20 billion last year' is correct in terms of the meaning?

What does 'last year' refer to? Shouldn't there be a preposition between '$20 billion' and 'last year'? Say for example - Compared with about $20 billion that was reached last year