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805+ Level|   Comparisons|   Modifiers|      
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jooyoung99
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As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposi 13 Mar 2018, 17:02
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95% (hard)

Question Stats:

23% (01:22) correct 77% (01:31) wrong based on 1321 sessions

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As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposia, mathematicians are discovering more and more unsolved problems, nearly twice as many as confounded mathematicians of the 1950s.

A. twice as many as confounded
B. double the number of problems that confounded
C. two times the problems as confounded the
D. twice as many as the problems that confounded
E. double the problems that confounded
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A
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prasanna1417
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As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposi 13 Mar 2018, 18:09
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jooyoung99
As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposia, mathematicians are discovering more and more unsolved problems, nearly twice as many as confounded mathematicians of the 1950s.

a. twice as many as confounded
b. double the number of problems that confounded
c. two times the problems as confounded the
d. twice as many as the problems that confounded
e. double the problems that confounded
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I answered it in a haste as (B)......I guess the sentence in simple words is trying to say:

More and more unsolved problems are now being solved>>which is almost double the number of problems which could not be solved in 1950 and confounded=confused/tricked the then mathematicians'........

a) Twice as many as (the unsolved problems) that confounded----we dont need to write the ones in bracket, as the reference is quite clear, as the clause immediately after the comma is referring to the "unsolved problems" which is just before the comma.

b) double the number of problems --- this part looks like directly referring to the unsolved problems, giving it a meaning as if the number of unsolved problems were exactly the same number of overall problems that confounded (confused/tricked) mathematicians' of 1950- (irrespective of they were finally solved/unsolved).

c) same error as b

d) Twice as many as the problems that confounded.......here again the reference to unsolved problems is wrongly made to the whole set of problems which confounded 1950 Mathematicians', some of which would have been solved too........

e) same error as b

So A, is non wordy, correct reference, meaning contained and apt.

Experts: Pls correct my understanding
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jooyoung99
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As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposi 13 Mar 2018, 20:13
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So in this sentence, I think what is "nearly twice as many" are unsolved problems.

What's throwing me off is the comparison of "unsolved problems" to "confounded mathematicians of the 1950s".

How can there be twice as many "unsolved problems" as "confounded mathematicians"? Is there an implied "unsolved problems" somewhere?

I think this is how the sentence should be written:

As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposia, mathematicians are discovering more and more unsolved problems that are nearly twice as many as problems discovered by confounded mathematicians of the 1950s.

What am I missing?
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As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposi 17 Mar 2018, 07:39
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twice is used for comparison, double is mostly used as an adjective.

here this question is for comparison. A vs D. let see comparison of what. "unsolved problem" compared with ???

D changed the meaning as it is talking about all the problem.
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As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposi 27 Apr 2018, 00:36
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This isn't a wonderful sentence, but I think what's confounding many people here is that "confounded" is intended as a verb, not an adjective. We're not talking about "confounded mathematicians." We're saying that the current number is twice the number that confounded the mathematicians of the 50's.
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As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposi 27 Apr 2018, 04:31
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DmitryFarber
This isn't a wonderful sentence, but I think what's confounding many people here is that "confounded" is intended as a verb, not an adjective. We're not talking about "confounded mathematicians." We're saying that the current number is twice the number that confounded the mathematicians of the 50's.
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Hi DmitryFarber

Can you please Explain how D is grammatically wrong??
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As is supported by evidence recently presented in mathematical symposi 30 Apr 2018, 22:59
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rahul16singh28 Sure. First off, it works just fine to compare modifiers rather than nouns, so we don't need to add the words "the problems." When we do, it creates a potential misinterpretation. We could read this as "Mathematicians discovering twice as many unsolved problems as the problems that confounded mathematicians did." In other words, grammatically, we are comparing mathematicians to unsolved problems. This might seem like a really crazy way to read the sentence, but the structure creates that expectation. Think of the sentence "I scored ten goals, twice as many as the top player on the opposing team." Notice that here I'm comparing what I did to what the other player did. That's the same structure we see in D.
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