A recent study, published by the California Bureau of Employment, foun

A recent study, published by the California Bureau of Employment, found that people who sent in resumes with “ethnic-sounding” names had a much more difficult time getting called back from employers as people who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but “white-sounding” names.

a)employers as people who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but “white-sounding” names.

b)employers as those who did send in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

c)employers than those who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but “white-sounding” names.

d)employers than those who did send in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

e)employers than people did who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

First thing to notice is that this is a comparison question. 50% of the answer is solved when you recognize the question type. Rest is up to the application of your skills.
From comparison we know that x more than y is the correct form.
A) This choice uses :more more .....as -> Incorrect
B) Same as A.

Now in C,D and E -> much more....than..is correct. However, the second thing to notice is that the parallelism marker represents similar logic,meaning in X more than Y. X and Y should have the same structure.
Notice the non underline part of the sentence :
people who sent in resumes with “ethnic-sounding” names . So the correct answer should have similar structure. So at this point C is out.

Between D and E, E wins because 'those' is ambigous, what does it refer to people or employers. In E the pronoun those is clearly replaced by people. Hence E is the correct answer.

I have generally observed that whenever a pronoun is replaced by a noun in an option than that option is generally correct over the one with pronoun. Usually the option with pronoun has ambiguity and the other option is resolving that ambiguity.

Hope it helps !

Hi Bluelagoon.

I picked E, not D because:

D)employers than those who did send in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.
The structure is like:

people who sent in resumes.....had much more................getting called back from X than Y who did.......................

You see the comparison is ambiguity. "Those" is not clear here. It's like you're comparing X with Y [employers with those]


E)employers than people did who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.
Even E is longer, but clearer. The structure is:
People who.................had much more................. than people who.........................

Hope it helps.

Though i marked the answer as E through POE
I wanted to clarify a doubt in option E.. Can who modify a verb?? its a noun modifier then how its modifying the verb did in option E?

employers than people did who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

Option E) I believe is incorrect. Both of the following options are either incorrect or fatally awkward based on Ron's session on Helping Verbs :

1) I know more about Shakepeare than my brother does, who hasn't studied English -> [ Incorrect because the noun modifier needs to follow the noun "my brother" ]
2) I know more about Shakepeare than my brother, who hasn't studied English, does -> [Although this option is grammatically correct but considered fatally awkward]

Best option is to place the action verb before the subject
3) I know more about Shakepeare than does my brother, who hasn't studied English. [Correct]

For the same reason the construction " ... employers than people did who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications .... " is wrong.

Option C) seems to be correct.

E) looks to have a typo. "...than people did who..." isn't grammatical, because the "who" is improperly modifying the verb. It should be "...than did people who..." in my opinion; I'm not sure if the typo is in the original problem or if the poster made a mistake in transcription.

As others have pointed out, C) is incorrect because it should be "than did those..." and should be "..with "white-sounding names"..."

Hope this helps!

It is an idiom of from ____ than ____ .. Here both the blanks must refer to the same type of things (here applicants). Those can refer either the applicants or the employers. Hence D is wrong.
C is wrong for the same, while A and B directly go out because of the idiom structure. So E is the answer.

D is ambiguous People .... had more difficult time getting call from employer(X) than those (Y)...

It reflects that People with ethnic name had difficult time getting call from employer (more difficult) and also from those with white names (comparatively)

E has problem that relative clause "who..." is far from the noun modified, "people" . this far modification can be acceptable when there is no better choice.

in D, "did send" means "sent" when we want to emphasize.

because this is not official question, I do not think we should continue study of this problem.

Best regards.

I agree with this. I can confirm that the original question contains the construct as in the posted question. Can an expert from Veritas (VeritasPrepKarishma perhaps?) clarify on whether this was an inadvertent error or whether there is some obscure grammar rule that allows such a construct?

e)employers than people did who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

you must be f****ing kidding me!!!
how the F can this be a correct answer?
DID+sent that is 2 F-ing past simple in the same structure. JUST A REMINDER TO EVERYONE!!! DID is used to emphasize something that happened in the past. To use it correctly, you need to put DID + infinitive verb without "to".
people did who sent - this is so awkward and so stupid that no SANE person would even EVER consider E as a correct answer. Because of this kind of **** questions, people tend to get disappointed with their results.

this seems a poorly written question. the proclaimed answer E is WRONG for poor construction and even D presents an ambiguity

D says: recent study, published by the California Bureau of Employment, found that people who sent in resumes with “ethnic-sounding” names had a much more difficult time getting called back from employers than those who did send in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

ALSO "getting called back from employers" is WRONG

TWO interpretations of D:

meaning 1: recent study, published by the California Bureau of Employment, found that people who sent in resumes with “ethnic-sounding” names had a much more difficult time getting called back from employers than FROM those who did send in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names------>after all people can be called from ANOTHER SET of people who in turn have been sending their OWN RESUMES !!

meaning 2: recent study, published by the California Bureau of Employment, found that people who sent in resumes with “ethnic-sounding” names had a much more difficult time getting called back from employers than those who did send in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names [ had difficult time getting called back from employers]

E is WRONG because E says: employers than people did who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names--->the BOLD portion in E is WRONG. you cannot PUT verb "DID" in between "PEOPLE" and "WHO"

the comparison in E would be correct if E were WRITTEN: employers than DID people who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but with “white-sounding” names.

however this question would STILL be WRONG because of the construction "getting called back from employers"

C says: employers than those who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but “white-sounding” names.------> this construction of BUT means to EXCLUDE the thing mentioned AFTER "BUT" ; for instance : he spoke everything BUT truth ----->this means that he spoke everything OTHER THAN TRUTH

ALSO C is WRONG FOR this construction "getting called back from employers"

bumping again in this one. E is clearly incorrect. either a typo or the OA is wrong.

DID who SENT - 2 past used, incorrect.

maybe it is "THAN DID PEOPLE WHO SENT"?
it makes sense to be constructed in this way, since the comparison ambiguity is now removed.

C is wrong because, it misses the ‘with’ parallelism. -- resumes with ethnic-sounding names—should be -- but with ethnic-sounding names.
E: If E were the correct choice, I haven’t known that one can usually and formally write in that fashion. It looked rather unusual.
_________________

In addition to parallelism, there is comparison error in option C.

X More than Y.

As per the meaning in C - people (certain type mentioned by who....) had a more difficullt time than those (refer to people). This in incorrect

A certain kind of people had a more difficult time than another kind of people had - correctly mentioned in option E.

Hope it helps.

Specter:
One cannot parallel a feature verb such as ‘had’ with an action word ‘do’. 'To have' something is not the same as 'to do' something.
E is particularly wrong for this reason, apart from the clumsy way, that choice has been written. What is it that 'who’ is referring to? A relative pronoun cannot jump over a verb to modify some noun.
_________________

There are certain problems with the OA.

A modifier should generally touch the noun it refers to - flipping the verb and subject would solve this issue. Moreover using a conjunction ("but") to add a prepositional phrase modifier ( "with “white-sounding” names") and a relative clause modifier ( "who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications") is not one of the best practices. The OA would be better it were as follows:

...employers than DID PEOPLE who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications but HAD “white-sounding” names.

Here, the verbs "sent" and "had" are joined with the conjunction "but". (Though this contrast does not make sense, it would at least be grammatically correct. A better construction is given at the end of this post.)

There is one more problem in the sentence (in the non-underlined part). The modifier "with “ethnic-sounding” names" is wrongly placed - it modifies "resumes" instead of "people". Ideally the construction should be:

...found that people with “ethnic-sounding” names who sent in resumes had.....

However the parallelism would then be affected. The complete sentence would be correct if it were as follows:

A recent study, published by the California Bureau of Employment, found that people with “ethnic-sounding” names who sent in resumes had a much more difficult time getting called back from employers than did people with “white-sounding” names who sent in resumes showing similar qualifications .

No, "who" refers to "people". This an exception of the modifier touch rule. Manhattan SC guide explains such exceptions. Following is an excerpt that is related to the exception above:

1. A “mission-critical” modifier falls between. This modifier is often an Of phrase that defines the noun. The less important modifier refers to the noun plus the first modifier.

Right: He had a way OF DODGING OPPONENTS that impressed the scouts.