The herring gull population in the North America is now thirty times

Question

The herring gull population in the North America is now thirty times larger  than in  the beginning of the century.

(A) than in
(B) than they were at
(C) than it was at 
(D) compared to that of
(E) compared to what they were at

mridulbr · Answer

Population.........was

hence C

DevilDoggNC · Answer

Choice C!

Let's simplify this question:

population is now 30 times larger than the   population in the beginning of the century.

So how can we express this properly.

Choice A -- Is incorrect because we are just saying that the population is greater than "in the beginning of the century" -- its an incorrect comparison. It's missing the pronoun reference. Population must be compared to population.

Choice B -- they were -- population is singular

Choice C -- correct "it" refers to the population

Choice D -- "Larger compared to" -- awkward...Larger than is better

Choice E -- uses plural -- wrong

toughmat · Answer

For comparison we need than so eliminate d & e
In choice C it refers back to population so pick C

crick20002002 · Answer

C is the correct choice.
First examining the choices, we can eliminate D and E as we need a "than to follow larger" here.

Secondly, we are referring to a specific time instant in history : the beginningof the century. So we need an "at" . (if the construction was without "the" : beginning of century, "in" would have been more appropriate). So we can eliminate A.

Lastly we need a singluar verb with population. Hence can eliminate B.

Left with C

.

Crick

. Crick

vietmoi999 · Answer

"at the begining " is idiomatic. so, "in" in A is wrong.
"they" in B is wrong because it refer to nothing
"compared..." needs a noun . there is no such nouns. D and E are gone

dabaobao · Answer

Main Issues: 
1) Parallelism: X & Y should be parallel.
2) Idiom: Correct idiom is "larger than". Incorrect: "larger compared to".
3) Comparison: Population is being compared for 2 different times.

A. than in  - Wrong: Proposition "at" should be used instead of "in".  
B. than they were at  - Wrong: Plural "they" can't be used to refer to singular "Population".  
C. than it was at  - Correct 
D. compared to that of  - Wrong: 1) Idiom 2) Don't need another copy "that". 3) Distorted Meaning: "population of the beginning..." 
E. compared to what they were at  - Wrong: Idiom 2) Plural "they" can't be used to refer to singular "Population".

sayiurway · Answer

Manhattan SC book suggests that:
If you want to relate the quantities by multiplication, use times and as…as together:
Right: The man is FIVE TIMES AS OLD AS his grandson.
Wrong: The man is FIVE TIMES OLDER THAN his grandson

Is this correct to use "thirty times larger" or should it be "thirty times as big/larger as"?
Tks

thangvietnam · Answer

the only error in choice A is "in". we have to use "at the beginning". this is purely idiomatic.

if we change "in" into "at", choice a is more consice than choice c.

thangvietnam · Answer

when making comparison and ellipsis, keep the tense of mood (negative or positive" of the first clause. if you dont remember this point, you can make wrong ellipsis. 
choice a means
than the population IS in the beginning. this is wrong. IS is wrong, WAS is correct.

GMATBuddha · Answer

The herring gull population in the North America is now thirty times larger   than in  the beginning of the century.

Lets simplify the sentence.
Population   larger than  
in this option, just by saying "than in", we cannot be sure what is being compared.
 
"they" is a plural pronoun which can't logically refer back to anything here.
 
  larger than  
Clean. No errors.
 
larger than is correct. Who says larger compared to???
 
same issue as above.

sherxon · Answer

Please, can someone answer this question?

KittyDoodles · Answer

Hi team,

In option A why can't we assume that the below has been omitted in the sentence.

The herring gull population in the North America is now thirty times larger than (the population was )in the beginning of the century.

In option C, does the pronoun "IT" refers to the current population?

Thanks

The herring gull population in the North America is now thirty times

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The herring gull population in the North America is now thirty times

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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My Rewards