The incidence of rape in rural areas is equally high or more so that

Question

The incidence of rape in rural areas is  equally high or more so than in urban areas .

(A) equally high or more so than in urban areas
(B) equal to or higher than in urban areas
(C) as high as in urban areas or more
(D) equal to, if not more, than in urban areas
(E) as high as it is in urban areas, if not higher

sayantanc2k · Accepted Answer

The problem in B is with the part "equal to" - object of a preposition must be a noun - ignore the part "or higher than"; the sentence becomes:

The incidence of rape in rural areas is equal to in urban areas..... this construction is wrong because there should be a noun (or pronoun) after "to".

However it would be alright to say:
The incidence of rape is higher in rural areas than in urban areas.

sayantanc2k · Answer

The interpretation above is wrong - for simplicity, ignore the part "equal to" for the time being:

The incidence of rape in rural area is higher than in urban area... the comparison is incorrect. Here the the compared parts are "the incidence" (noun) and "in urban area" (prepositional phrase).

The correct comparison would be:

The incidence of rape is higher in rural area than in urban area. Here the comparison is correct (two prepositional phrases are compared.)
OR
The incidence of rape in rural area is higher than that in urban area. Here that comparison is also correct (two nouns are compared).

You cannot mix noun with prepositional phrase.

shashanksagar · Answer

Imo E.
Rest all seem awkward. Let me know OA.

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Kevalkhanna · Answer

The OA is E. But I think its wrong as the "it" in option E refers to "The incidence of rape in rural areas". Hence, it doesnt make sense.

Please can someone explain the correct answer.

shashanksagar · Answer

Rest all options wrongly compare "incident of rapes" to area.. that is why I selected E.

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shashanksagar · Answer

Hi Sonakshi, If you re-read the sentences with options plugged in, you'll notice that in rest 4 options, "incident of rapes" is being compared with "urban areas". That is improper comparison. E rectifies this mistake. That's my opinion, maybe someone else can explain better.

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Abhishek009 · Answer

The incidence of rape    in rural areas  is  as high as    it   is  in urban areas   if not higher.

IMHO  IT refers to The incidence of rape

Further the sentence uses correct usage of the idiomatic expression :  As X as Y 
  
Hence correcr answer will be (E)

devbond · Answer

Lets look at this contruction
 X is greater than or equal to  Y   -- both greater than and equal to point to  Y

Now lets see what Y is in the problem statement

The incidence of rape in rural areas is equally high or more so than in urban areas.

( A) equally high or more so than in urban areas 
(B) equal to or higher than in urban areas -- equal to what ??
(C) as high as in urban areas or more-- or more what ?
(D) equal to, if not more, than in urban areas-- equal to than in??
( E) as high as it is in urban areas, if not higher -- the most accurate sentence is option E . IT  points to "incidence of rape"

devbond · Answer

equally high or more  so  than in urban areas.

equally high or more than in urban areas is the correct construction. I diomatically More So is wrong

Jat · Answer

Hello Experts, 
How can option B wrong? 
She is taller than him. In this sentence we are not comparing "taller" with "him". 
Similarly, option B : the incidence of rape in rural area is equal to or higher than (the incidence of rape) in urban area.

Please help me understand.

Thank you in advance,
Jat

CantDropThisTime · Answer

Below are the reasoning based on which I selected "E".
(A) equally high or more so than in urban areas -  Comparison is not clear ( compared to what in urban area ) (urban) 
(B) equal to or higher than in urban areas -  Comparison is not clear ( compared to what in urban area ) (urban) 
(C) as high as in urban areas or more -  Comparison is not clear ( compared to what in urban area ) (urban) 
(D) equal to, if not more, than in urban areas -  Comparison is not clear ( compared to what in urban area ) (urban) 
(E) as high as it is in urban areas, if not higher  -  Correct comparison, "it" referring to incidence of rape.  . Although I am not totally satisfied with this answer, as "if not higher" changes the meaning a bit, but this is best among all options available.

mihir0710 · Answer

GMATNinja

hi Sir, 
Does not this phrase "if not higher" in option E changes the meaning ?

okay its grammatically correct but are such meaning changes acceptable on official question ?

GMATNinja · Answer

Sure, "as high as... if not higher" would definitely mean something different than just "as high as", but I think the meaning is basically the same in all five answer choices. All of them contain "or higher" or "or more so" or something like that. So the meaning in (E) really isn't substantially different from any of the other answer choices, so it's not really a problem.

(But for what it's worth: "at least as high as" would have been a much more elegant phrase. But that wasn't an option, so...)

Anyway, I hope this helps!

vksharma · Answer

IMHO,(B) can be read as : 
the incidence of rape in rural area is equal to or higher than (the incidence of rape) in urban area.

Is it wrong to interpret (B) as above?
Please help rectify my understanding
Thanks

globaldesi · Answer

GMATNinja 
I shortlisted the answers to C and E. Can you explain how E is better?

GMATNinja · Answer

Usual caveats apply here about non-official questions: the GMAT spends somewhere between $1500 and $3000 developing each question, and even the best test-prep companies can't compete. This one certainly isn't terrible, but I don't think it smells quite like the real thing, either.

But all of them have clear problems, other than (E). (A), (C), and (D) all have an issue in common: they all use the word "more", and that doesn't work in this context, because you could never say that the "incidence of rape... is  more " in one place than another. You could say that the "incidence... is  higher ", but "more" is wrong here. (If it helps, think of "frequency" as a rough synonym for "incidence" -- "the frequency... is more" doesn't work either, right?)

So for that reason, you can eliminate (A), (C), and (D). If anybody reading this is tempted by (B), check out  sayantanc2k  's excellent explanation above.

I hope this helps!

aragonn · Answer

A comparison question -- The incidence of rape in rural areas vs The incidence of rape in urban areas.

(A) equally high or more so than in urban areas --- The incidence of rape in rural areas is more so than in urban areas - does it sounds good ?
(B) equal to or higher than in urban areas --- equal to in urban area. ---- does this sound alright ?
(C) as high as in urban areas or more --- incidence vs area comparison; classic comparison mistake.
(D) equal to, if not more, than in urban areas --- equal to that of in urban area would have been right. 
(E) as high as it is in urban areas, if not higher --- it refers to 'incidence'. make perfect sense now.

daagh · Answer

B. ---The incidence of rape in rural areas is equal to or higher than in urban areas--- The question is --equal to or higher than what-- in urban areas?. The second arm of the comparison seems to be missing. That is why B cannot be counted.

Bunuel · Answer

MANHATTAN REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

Equally high or more so’ is idiomatically incorrect. B is also idiomatically incorrect. The incidence of something somewhere could be equal to the incidence of something somewhere else, but not just equal to somewhere else. In choice C, or more what? Choice D is also incomplete. Equal to what? The only answer choices which is clear is choice E, the correct answer.

The incidence of rape in rural areas is equally high or more so that

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The incidence of rape in rural areas is equally high or more so that

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