Here's the official explanation provided by the GMAC for this question:

A comparison or contrast evaluates two parallel elements. The point of this sentence is to contrast two kinds of loans, but the sentence has been written so that a typical automobile loan is contrasted with the lease-loan buyer. The correct contrast is between a typical automobile loan and a lease-loan. This change makes the two verbs active voice (requires… does not require) and parallel.

Option A: Loan is incorrectly contrasted with lease-loan buyer

Option B: Loan is contrasted with lease-loan buying instead of lease-loan; prepositional phrase (with… ) begins an awkward and wordy construction

Option C: Loan is contrasted with lease-loan buyers instead of lease-loan

Option D: Loan is contrasted with lease-loan buyer instead of lease-loan; prepositional phrase (for… ) begins an awkward and wordy construction

Option E: Correct. In this sentence, loan is properly contrasted with lease-loan, and, in place of the passive voice is required, the active voice does… require parallels requires.

The correct answer is E.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.
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E.

You need to compare like things.

The underlined part needs to begin with "a lease-loan" because you're comparing a "typical automobile loan" with "a lease-loan"

All the other comparisons are unparallel

I agree with E. The auto lease is being modified instead of the buyer.

E for me....
A,B,C,D have issues with comparision.. automobile loan needs to be compared with lease loan only...

Fairly easy question.
A typical automobile loan // a lease-loan.
E is correct.

A) “A typical automobile loan” is not parallel to “the lease-loan buyer”.
B) “A typical automobile loan” is not parallel to “with lease-loan buying”.
C) “A typical automobile loan” is not parallel to “the lease-loan buyers”.
D) “A typical automobile loan” is not parallel to “for the lease-loan buyer”.
E) Correct. “A typical automobile loan” is parallel to “a lease-loan”.

Correct answer is E.

Unlike a typical automobile loan, which requires a fifteen- to twenty-percent down payment, the lease-loan buyer is not required to make an initial deposit on the new vehicle.
(A) the lease-loan buyer is not required to make
(B) with lease-loan buying there is no requirement of
(C) lease-loan buyers are not required to make
(D) for the lease-loan buyer there is no requirement of
(E) a lease-loan does not require the buyer to make


Easy E because of comparison error.

E clearly stood out since we need to establish grammatical parallelism (compare same thing: noun compares noun etc), hence there we need to compare like things --> Unlike x, y --> Unlike a ... must compare a ...!

Hi Experts,

Though I marked option E because of all the valid reasons, I got a little confused the moment I compared "the buyer" in choice E.

Does "the" buyer holds any significance here?

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