The modern rise of mobile, social, and location-based

Question

The modern rise of mobile, social, and location-based technologies has allowed humans to become  more tech-savvy now than at any time in their  history.
(A) more tech-savvy now than at any time in their
(B) more tech-savvy than they were at any time in their
(C) more tech-savvy than those at any other time in
(D) more tech-savvy than those at any other time in their
(E) more tech-savvy now than at any time in

apples & oranges question
Please explain the answer choices...

GMATPill · Accepted Answer

The modern rise of mobile, social, and location-based technologies has allowed humans to become  more tech-savvy now than at any time in their  history.

(A) more tech-savvy now than at any time in their

(B) more tech-savvy than they were at any time in their

(C) more tech-savvy than those at any other time in

(D) more tech-savvy than those at any other time in their
 
(E) more tech-savvy now than at any time in

pqhai · Answer

This question is difficult because you have to select a right answer by meaning not by grammars only.

The modern rise of mobile, social, and location-based technologies has allowed humans to become  more tech-savvy now than at any time in their  history.

(A) more tech-savvy now than at any time in their
 Wrong.  Correct grammar but wrong meaning.  A compares SAME object in different time frames.  A seems to convey a meaning that technology has made people now more tech-savvy than themselves in the past. It's totally wrong. The intended meaning is that people now are more tech-savvy than people in the past (  different objects  ).
 
(B) more tech-savvy than they were at any time in their
 Wrong.  Same problem as in A.  B compares SAME object but in different time frames.  It's not intended meaning. See explanation above.

(C) more tech-savvy than those at any other time in
  Correct.   C compares two DIFFERENT objects - people now and people in the past.

(D) more tech-savvy than those at any other time in their
 Wrong.  The main problem is "their". D seems to convey an idea that group A (now) is more tech-savvy than  group B  at anytime  in group B's history . Wrong meaning. The intended meaning is "human's history in general".

(E) more tech-savvy now than at any time in
 Wrong.  Same problem as in A an B. E has correct grammar but wrong meaning.  E compares SAME object in different time frames.  It's not intended meaning.

Hope it clears your doubt.

shanmugamgsn · Answer

I selected E

More X than Y
more .... now (time) than any time in history 
more tech-savvy now than at any time in
 their is not needed i guess

Correct me if i'm wrong...

-- 
Shan

nelz007 · Answer

The answer is C. E is the trap answer we are trying to make the comparison between humans and those humans at other times.

Marcab · Answer

The logic of the sentence states, "because of the modern rise of technologies, humans have become  more tech savy .... just think, who has become more tech savy. Is it humans or time. As per some options, the comparison is being made between humans and time which is ridiculous. It should be humans.   than those at    there is a split between other time and any time. If its any time, then it includes the current time as well at which the humans have more become tech savy. So it CAN illogically compare humans who are tech savy to humans who are tech savy. So it should be OTHER time in history.   other time in history .
Moreover it can't be  their  history. It illogically suggests that humans' age is thousands and thousands of years.
I hope you understand my point.
The best answer as well as the correct one is C.
Hope that helps.

shanmugamgsn · Answer

Thanks nelz007 for correcting me

Whats wrong with D? 
D) more tech-savvy than those at any other time in their

their refers to humans? 
Why not we go with D?

Marcab · Answer

Because it talks about "their history".
Suppose you are a human, in fact you are, but consider yourself in the case. Now if I say that you have become more tech savy now because of bla bla.... than yourself in your history, then it illogically implies that you have been living for ages and have seen the advancement in all the technologies.
hope you understand, what I am trying to convey.

shanmugamgsn · Answer

Ya... 
You mean to say we need not be too specific here...
Already context is based on humans so history should also relate to their history only...
So we need not specify "their history" again !!!
Am i right ????

As usual choices between C and D are completely context driven?

nelz007 · Answer

Just to keep it simple "their" in this sentence is ambiguous structurally it is referring to time (preceding noun) but meaning wise we want to compare humans.

Marcab · Answer

The point is not redundancy here.
"Their history" illogically implies "history of an individual belonging to the humans' ".

carcass · Answer

All options but C and D compare two different things and not the same.

C instead compares humans with those in others era

D is too long.

C seems the best

umeshpatil · Answer

The modern rise of mobile, social, and location-based technologies has allowed humans to become  more tech-savvy now than at any time in their  history.

(A) more tech-savvy now than  at any time in their .  incorrect comparison terms  
(B) more tech-savvy than  they were at any time in their  Incorrect comparison terms 
(C) more tech-savvy than  those at any other time in  It correctly compares humans before to those at any other time in their history 
(D) more tech-savvy than those at any other time in  their .  Use of  their  restrict the whole human history to a specific part of it. Sentence is comparing tech savy in presence of technology to those in overall history. 
(E) more tech-savvy now than at any time in.  Incorrect comparison terms 
 
Options C and D are same except word 'their' added in D. How could D becomes too long only because of word 'their' ? I am not sure if it is the reason to eliminate D.

Here, We are comparing human beings before rise of technology to those along with presence of technology.

WaterFlowsUp · Answer

Bumping for review and further discussion*.

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Theory on Comparison:

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Theory Article on grammer-quizzes.com

https://www.grammar-quizzes.com/like-as.html

ramannanda9 · Answer

C,
 Any other  is required here to emphasize that this time is different and not being included in comparison.

b/w C and D 
D uses "their history" which is kind of unnecessary because we know that we are comparing history of human beings.So, C wins on concision.

mohnish104 · Answer

among-lower-paid-workers-union-members-are-less-likely-83575.html Ramanada can u please explain why the answer is D and not E

aslnlot · Answer

It is a very hard question for me.

Sukant2010 · Answer

Hi,
I have a doubt here.
With 'than' here between, the things that are compared must logically and structurally parallel i.e. more X than Y.
Here, tech savvy is compared with time in option (a) and with humans in option (c) and (d). Is this comparison correct..? How can tech savvy (adjective) be compared with humans (noun),, though logically more tech savvy humans now should be made parallel with the humans of the any other time in the history but isn't the part (tech savvy, adjective) after 'more' not grammatically parallel with that after 'than'..?
Please if you can elaborate on this.

vietmoi999 · Answer

WHY D is wrong? why "their" in D is wrong

I think "their" is ambiguous because we do not know to what "their " refer to, "human now" or "human at any other time"

this is the reason why "their" is wrong.

do you see my explanation convincing?, please, speak up. we hare here to speak and discuss and finally to improve

Abdul29 · Answer

Yes. I eliminated chocie (D) for the same reason. "Their" is just ambiguous, like you mentioned.

The modern rise of mobile, social, and location-based

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