In comparison with the literature created by the ancient Greeks, toda

In comparison with the literature created by the ancient Greeks, today’s Greeks have written nothing worth describing.
(A) In comparison with the literature created by the ancient Greeks, today’s Greeks have written nothing worth describing.
Comparison is done between Literature and Greeks, an Illogical comparison. Hence Incorrect.
(B) In comparison with the literature created by the ancient Greeks, the literature of today’s Greeks are containing nothing worth describing.
Use of plural verb ARE for singular noun Literature is incorrect. Moreover, the option is WORDY. Hence Incorrect.
(C) Compared to that of the ancient Greeks, today’s Greeks have written nothing worth describing.
Comparison is done between Literature and Greeks, an Illogical comparison. Hence Incorrect.
(D) Compared to that of the ancient Greeks, the literature of today’s Greeks is not worth describing.
CORRECT
(E) Compared to the ancient Greek’s literature, today’s Greeks have written nothing worth describing.
Comparison is done between Literature and Greeks, an Illogical comparison. Hence Incorrect.

We're comparing the literature of today's Greeks with Ancient Greeks. Any other comparison can be eliminated.

A - OUT.
B - SV Disagreement. Literature is singular, and are is plural.
C - OUT.
D - Correct, Keep.
E - OUT.

D is the answer.

Correct answer is D. it is the only option where Ancient Greek literature is compared to literate written by greek's today.

How D can be the answer?
"Compared to" is used to compare dissimilar objects. "Compared with"is used to compare similar objects.

In D, "compared to" is used to compare the similar object(Literature vs Literature). This is also an error. Am I right?

If I am wrong, can "compared to" is used to comparing similar and dissimilar object?

Please correct me if i am wrong.

@imyuva- if I may be allowed to quote Veritas prep ... on sentence correction some questions are above our pay grade. The instructor referred this to idiomatic use. It's great to know a lot of idioms but if you look closely in the sentence we can get to correct answer without the idiom. Here is how:

A compares literature with Greeks--- out

Choice C and D have same mistake. Out

Now between B & D...
Both correctly compare literature to literature. But B has SV error. Literature is singular. In B it is incorrectly used as are.

D is hence correct.

Now I don't know the compared to vs compared with rule. And I am sure, the test writers want us to focus on this while a simple way exists to answer the question.

That's my two cents.

@Gmatninja, @gmatninja2, @broall, @mikemcgarry can you help with the compared to and compared with rule. Thanks in advance


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"Compared to" is used to highlight similarity: This place can be compared to heaven... highlighting similarity.
"Compared with" is used to highlight difference: I am always compared with my brother.... highlighting difference.

When "compared to/with" is used as a modifier, the objective generally is to highlight difference and hence technically the correct usage would be "compared with".
Compared with a horse, a donkey is slow.... highlighting difference.

Nonetheless GMAT ignores this difference - both usages would be considered correct in GMAT.