Manhattan Prep Official Explanation

The intent of the sentence is to compare counterfeiting today to counterfeiting in the past, using difficulty as the measure. In the original sentence, the comparison is correctly drawn between “today…counterfeiting is” and “it [counterfeiting] was at the time of the Civil War.” Additionally, the use of “despite” accurately conveys the main point that although some new technologies are available, counterfeiting is nevertheless more difficult than it once was.

(A) CORRECT. The original sentence is correct as written.

(B) The intent of the sentence is to compare counterfeiting today to counterfeiting in the past. In this sentence, the placement of “today” after “high resolution scanners and printers” could lead to a misunderstanding about what occurs “today”: the equipment, or perhaps the wide availability of the equipment, rather than the counterfeiting itself.

(C) This sentence is missing “today,” which clearly indicated in the original sentence when the counterfeiting with scanners and printers occurs. The first instance of the pronoun "it" has also been dropped, creating an illogical comparison between an act, “counterfeiting,” and a time, “at the time of the Civil War.” A correct comparison could have been between “today” and “the time of the Civil War”: “…counterfeiting is more difficult today than at the time of the Civil War…”

(D) An illogical comparison is made between an act, “counterfeiting,” and a time, “when it was estimated.”

(E) The point of the original sentence is that counterfeiting is more difficult today “despite,” not “because of,” the technology that is available.

a Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Remove "despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers" and you are left with Today counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Comparing today's situation with previous situation "it was".

b Despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers today, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Not comparing present time with past so incorrect.

c Despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Not comparing present time with past so incorrect.

d Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit at the time of the Civil War.
Remove "despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers" and you are left with Today counterfeiting is more difficult than when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit at the time of the Civil War.
Compares Today's situation with previous time "when". In correct comparison.

e Today, because of widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Indicates "because of widely available technology" counterfeiting is difficult.

I will go with A.

Here is a simple strategy i use with SC problems with the complete sentence underlined:

1) Read the choices first starting from the last one (E) - not deeply, but just superficially. I have found that there will be at least one or even two choices which are absolutely incoherent/incorrect. They are just junk and easy to eliminate.

Example: in your problem, choice D (and to some extent E) can be eliminated by a simple glance.

2) Now read the original sentence, eliminating any middleman(appositives/relative clauses etc) to understand the broader meaning. Then start the usual SC Strategy.

Try and see if it helps.

Crick

PoE - 'A'

Timing - 1.20 Mins

yes 'today' in A is much better than in B.
rest of the options are not even close enough

Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.

A. Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Correct.
B. Despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers today, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Incorrect. The comparison becomes awkward. "counterfeiting is more difficult than it was in the past" begs for a "when?". Today should be referring to counterfeiting to make the comparison clear.
C. Despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Incorrect. Same problem as B.
D. Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit at the time of the Civil War.
Incorrect. No need of two conjunctions (than/when).
E. Today, because of widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Incorrect. It changes the meaning (e.g. even though versus because).

Can some expert throw light on - 1) Why 'it' is not refering to "civil war"? and 2) Why is A better than B? Thanks!


1. Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.
2. Despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers today, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.

LucyDang Best way to solve these long underlined sentences is to segregate similar options and find the differences within them. for ex, in this question options 1,4&5 looks similar and 2&3 looks similar. Now find the differences among them.

arkle

1. Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.Correct

2. Despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers today, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit. placement of "today" is wrong, counterfeiting is compared to the time of the event. It should compare counterfeiting today to counterfeiting at the time of civil war.

3. Despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit. "today" is missing and is necessary to show the timeline. counterfeiting is compared to the time of the event.

4. Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit at the time of the Civil War.wrong comparison of counterfeiting again, x is more difficult than y is the correct form.

5. Today, because of widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.the words "because of" changes the meaning of the sentence.

Hope this helps.

Sentence A: Today counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War
Sentence B: Today counterfeiting is more difficult than at the time of the Civil War


Whether Sentence B is correct when compared with Sentence A? Both conveys the same meaning? I m confused here.

In my understanding both looks same. Kindly help if i m missing anything. Thanks.

In long sentences such as these, one can try to remove the fluff like the modifiers and see, whether the original intent is carried in the choices. In this case, let is remove the modifiers and compare.

Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.

A. Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.

B.Despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers today, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.

C. Despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.

D. Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit at the time of the Civil War.

E. Today, because of widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than it was at the time of the Civil War, when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.

Let’s first get rid of E for being antithetical.

When we remove the modifiers, we can see the relevance of the word ‘today’. B and C miss the important comparative arm today and hence do not carry the original intent. We should eliminate them. Between A and D, D has a modification problem in that ‘at the time of the civil war’, is relegated to the end of the sentence, altering the original intent.

Therefore, A is correct

Maybe, this helps
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Hi,
Specific to your Q..
A is correct ..
But B illogically compares counterfeiting with a time frame, at the time of civil war"
so B may not be correct..

I'll try to give you a situation where the latter part may be correct..
Heating-oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last year..

hope it helps

The correct comparison should be drawn between the following elements:

1. Counterfitting is difficult today.
2. It was difficult at the time of the Civil War.

Thus the correct structure is:
Counterfitting is MORE difficult today THAN it was (difficult) at the time of the Civil War.

In option C, the critical parts, "today" and "it was", are missing.

Please help to understand why B is wrong? I eliminated C, D and E without much efforts, however was stuck between B and A.
Eliminated A because today followed by two clauses and then which construction sounds awkward.

In order to maintain parallelism, "today" should be a modifier for "is" (not for "available") : "Counterfeting is difficult today" is parallel with "it was at the time of the Civil War". However in option B "today" refers to "available", and hence the parallelism is broken.

Whether the OA is tenable is doubtful IMO. As per logical reckoning, the introductory word, 'today' kept at the head of the clause is gravely misplaced and leads to an illogical comparison. What are being compared here are 1. counterfeiting today (due to blah, blah) and 2. counterfeiting at the time of civil war. It is logical to expect that modifiers and modified nouns should go hand in hand rather than be far apart. Per se, moving 'today' close to counterfeiting will be the correct choice. Why the topic is missing such a choice is an overwhelming doubt. It is also tempting to reckon that "today" modifies the availability of hi-tech gadgets, but in that case, there
should have been no comma after "today". Maybe, a reply from MGMAT would be of immense help.
_________________

The meaning is as follows:
Technology (that helps in counterfeiting) is widely available today - yet counterfeiting is more difficult today than it was at the time of civil war (when such technology that helps counterfeiting was not available).

What if i wanted to compare today with at time of civil war?
As in D. But I think D has changed the meaning....

Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is more difficult than at the time of the Civil War when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit .

Is this sentence Correct?
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In the sentence you mentioned, the parallel structure is as follows:
Today, despite widely available technology such as high-resolution scanners and printers, counterfeiting is MORE difficult THAN (it was difficult) at the time of the Civil War ,when it was estimated that one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit.


In the second element (blue font) of the parallel structure, "it was" is a mandatory requirement. (It is alright to omit parts from the second element, if these parts are already there in the first element.) However the part "it was" is not there in the first element (pink ft) of the structure, and hence the sentence would be wrong even if the word "today" is included.

Hi all,
I was able to narrow down the options to A and E. The only difference between them are the words "despite" and "because". Could someone explain why E is wrong?