Hello Everyone!

This is a great example of a GMAT question that has to do with comparisons! Before we dive in, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

Traffic safety officials predict that drivers will be equally likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as the current one.

(A) equally likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as
(B) equally likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they are
(C) equally likely that they will exceed the proposed speed limit as
(D) as likely that they will exceed the proposed speed limit as
(E) as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they are

After a quick glance over the options, 2 major differences jumped out:

1. equally likely vs. as likely
2. as vs. as they are

Let's start with #1 on our list: equally likely vs. as likely. The proper idiomatic structure for each of these options are:

equally likely X and Y will happen (suggests both events will happen at the same time)
as likely X will happen as Y will happen (suggests that both events happen at separate times, but could end up turning out the same)

Since ALL of the options use some version of the phrase "as Y will happen" at the end of each one, we know that the first half of the comparison MUST include the "as likely X will happen" for the idiom to be complete.

(A) equally likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as
(B) equally likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they are
(C) equally likely that they will exceed the proposed speed limit as
(D) as likely that they will exceed the proposed speed limit as
(E) as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they are

Therefore, we can eliminate options A, B, and C because they don't follow either idiom structure correctly.

Now, we're only left with options D and E! Let's now focus on #2: as vs. as they are. To make this a little easier to spot, I added in the non-underlined portion of the sentence to each option:

(D) Traffic safety officials predict that drivers will be as likely that they will exceed the proposed speed limit as the current one.

This option is INCORRECT because the wording of this is confusing and awkward. The phrase "that they will exceed" is not only written poorly, but also it might confuse readers into thinking we're now talking about traffic safety officials exceeding the speed limit, rather than the drivers!

(E) Traffic safety officials predict that drivers will be as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they are the current one.

This option is CORRECT! It uses the right idiom structure "as likely that X will happen as Y will happen." It's also absolutely clear that the pronoun "they" is referring only to the drivers!

There you go - option E is our correct choice!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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Jaytan1 , sometimes it helps to simplify (shorten) the sentence and then "put back in" the words that have been omitted
Please note that speed limit is singular.

• Simplify and replace
Traffic safety officials predict that drivers will be as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as THEY ARE the current one.

Now we have
Drivers will be as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they are the current one.

Find the verb or verb phrase that follows the first AS: likely to exceed

Place that phrase back into the sentence. Such placement may be enough to find the correct answer.
Drivers will be as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they are likely to exceed the current one.

• Still not clear? Then find the antecedent for "one."
-- One is a pronoun that indicates a single, definite part of a group of a collection.
-- Nikolai wanted to test drive the Ferrari. He had never driven one.

One is singular. In form, "one" can refer only to "speed limit."

Drivers will be as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they are likely to exceed the current speed limit.

So . . . who or what is likely to be exceeding any speed limits?
The drivers?
Or the speed limit?

• Pronoun ambiguity allowed if the antecedent is obvious.

On the GMAT, if more than one noun can be the antecedent of the pronoun,
but context and logic make it clear which noun the pronoun SHOULD refer to, GMAC allows it.

No, the sentence is not written correctly.
You are close, though. You could write:

• Correct: Traffic safety officials predict that drivers will BE AS likely TO exceed the proposed speed limit as [drivers are likely to exceed] the current speed limit.
• Correct: Traffic safety officials predict that drivers will BE AS likely TO exceed the proposed speed limit as the current speed limit.
The comparison must maintain the AS ________ AS words — literally, we have to repeat AS.

• Correct: Traffic safety officials predict that drivers will most likely exceed the proposed speed limit, just AS they do the current speed limit.
This time we have omitted "exceed" and replaced it with "do."

(Yes, I have purposely avoided the word "with.")

Hope that helps.
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Great Explanations, Thank You.

The way I thought was (since the entire GMAT is sort of reasoning test) to identify whether its a comparison sentence or cause & effect sentence.
X is the same as Y
X is as bad as Y
Drivers most likely exceed the proposed speed limit, as they exceed the current speed limit.


The sentence "Traffic safety officials predict that drivers will be as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they are likely to exceed the current one."
appear grammatically correct, however, it makes no sense. Because whether the current speed limit is being violated or not is a fact; its not a 'are likely to exceed" factor.
In order to predict future likeliness one should know whether the current (and past) speed limit is being exceeded or not.
So the answer (E) is Illogical!

‘equally…as’ is unidiomatic, so A B and C are all wrong. Out of the remaining two E is clearly the right option as, D is also unidiomatic. The correct form is ‘as likely to’.

Traffic safety officials predict that drivers will be as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as to exceed the current one.

Is the above sentence correct? Why do we really need to put 'they are' if 'to exceed' is present? Agree that without 'to exceed' it will produce ambiguity.

The problem with that example is that both "to exceed the proposed speed limit" and "to exceed the current one" now match up with the future tense verb ("will be"). So it sounds as though drivers WILL be as likely to exceed the proposed speed limit as they WILL BE to exceed the current one.

Obviously exceeding the current speed limit in the future doesn't make any sense. In this case, it's better to include "they ARE" to illustrate the different times of the two actions.

But don't hurt too many brain cells trying to come up with your own answer choices -- leave that part to GMAC. If you understand why (E) is the best choice here, then you've done your job.
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I got stuck between A and E and eliminated E for the ambiguous use of "they". It could refer to the drivers or the officials. Where did I go wrong?