The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen perce

Question

The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen percent greater than fifty years ago.

A. The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen percent greater than fifty years ago.

B. The weight of the average American male is roughly fifteen percent greater today than fifty years ago.

C. Today, the weight of the average American male is roughly fifteen percent greater than fifty years ago.

D. The average American male weighs roughly fifteen percent more today than fifty years ago.

E. The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen percent greater than it was fifty years ago.

mikemcgarry · Accepted Answer

Dear avohden I'm happy to help. :-)

This is a funny question. The comparative form " fifteen percent more .. than " is not correct. That's why (D) is wrong. Choices (A) - (C) just slide the word " today " around. I don't think there's a problem with any of the three locations for this word. The only other split is that (E) includes a subject & verb after " than " for clarity. Certainly (E) is impeccable, but we are allowed to omit all words in parallel & comparison, as long as ambiguity doesn't arise, and I don't believe (A) - (C) are ambiguous in their comparisons. Sometimes omitting the verb after " than " produces gigantic ambiguities, but that's simply not the case here. For example correct : I like lasagne more than John does . ambiguous : I like lasagne more than John . This could mean the same as the first, or it could mean that I prefer lasagne to John! Here, I don't believe any ambiguity arises, because it's clear that " fifty years ago " is a time reference, not a possible term in the comparison. Therefore, four of the five choices would be correct. I don't find this a very GMAT-like question. The whole sentence is underlined, but despite that, there's exceedingly little difference among the answer choices. A good SC question has one very clear correct answer, and four choices that can be eliminated for absolutely unambiguous reasons. That's my take. Mike :-)

vivmechster · Answer

After so many wrongs in this type of problem I started loving this type. while test taker's mind is busy in finding the comparison, test makers subtly change the meaning. - is it OK to compare mind vs test makers?

Back to the question. A. The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen percent greater than fifty years ago . - weight vs time. B. The weight of the average American male is roughly fifteen percent greater today than fifty years ago. weight vs time. C. Today, the weight of the average American male is roughly fifteen percent greater than fifty years ago . - weight vs time. D. The average American male weighs roughly fifteen percent more today than fifty years ago. - remove today and then read, no sense E. The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen percent greater than it was fifty years ago.

manishtank1988 · Answer

Question to experts:
Can someone please tell me why B is wrong?
B. The weight of the average American male is roughly fifteen percent greater today than fifty years ago.

I think here the comparison is correct between 'today' and '50 years ago'. 
I choose this over E because it is succinct and clear. I am genuinely confused on this one!!!

Scorpi0n · Answer

Hey manishtank1988,

The weight of the average American male is roughly fifteen percent greater today than fifty years ago.

greater today than fifty years ago

This is something done to mislead the test taker into believing it is a correct comparison.

What is before  than  is compared to what is after it. Therefore, one of the things compared is  fifty years ago , but the other is not  today .

The weight  of the average American male is roughly fifteen percent greater today than  fifty years ago .

It can be corrected in either of these ways:

The weight of the average American male is  roughly fifteen percent greater today than    it was    fifty years ago.
 The weight of the average American male  is roughly fifteen percent greater today than    that    fifty years ago.

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

Correct Answer: (E)

This is a classic comparison question. We need to be comparing today’s average weight to the former average weight, but answer choices (A) through (D) all fill one of those two comparison slots with “fifty years ago.” (E) employs an “it” to substitute for “weight,” and thus it effects a fair comparison.

jinwshin · Answer

confused btw E and B

In (E), doesn’t the pronoun “it” refers to the phrase which includes the word “today”?

how can i be sure that the reference of “it” stops before 
the word “today”??

then the second sentence would be illogical, since it will look “~~~ today was years ago”

Posted from my mobile device

thangvietnam · Answer

this problem goes against the thinking gmat sc has . i think

TestPrepUnlimited · Answer

Answer choice (E) is correct.

Answer choices (A), (B), (C), and (D) all make the same incorrect comparison: they compare the weight of the average American male to  "fifty years ago"

The correct comparison, which (E) makes, is between the "weight of the average American male today" and "it"   fifty years ago.

ArtVandaley · Answer

mikemcgarry  can we say weight is greater? isnt it like saying height is taller?

Shouldnt we use the average american weighs more than it did 50 years ago?

TestPrepUnlimited · Answer

The correct answer is (E)

The placement of "today" is a bit of a trap; the word moves around in the incorrect answer choices, but they are all principally incorrect because of an incorrect comparison.

A. Incorrect comparison. The weight of the average American male is incorrectly compared to "fifty years ago" 
B. Incorrect comparison. The weight of the average American male is incorrectly compared to "fifty years ago" 
C. Incorrect comparison. The weight of the average American male is incorrectly compared to "fifty years ago" 
D. Incorrect comparison. The weight of the average American male is incorrectly compared to "fifty years ago"

E is correct because the answer choice employs "than it was," comparing "the weight of the average American male today" to "it" (i.e., the weight) fifty years ago.

thangvietnam · Answer

veritas is rising to top quality of sc problems. but the official explanation in veritas is not good.
veritas has a similar problem in which I post the same point I post here.

the golden rule for making comparison. keep both tense and mood (negative or affirmative) of the first clause when making ellipsis.

this means we have to keep present tense of "is", "weights" of the first clause and connect this tense with "fifty years ago". this is absurd.

the weight is 15 percent greater today than it IS fifty years ago. "is" can not fit with "ago".

this is why choice E is wrong. 
I can give you an example in which "than fifty years ago" is correct

the weight of male american WAS 15 percent greater last year than fifty years ago

this is correct because "was" is fit with both sides of "than".

thank you

daspri2809 · Answer

Can anybody explain why ellipses can't be used here?

The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen percent greater than (The weight of the average American male) fifty years ago.

Thank you

tinbq · Answer

Hi experts,

Please kindly help to explain why comparison in incorrect choice B between today and fifty years ago is not correct and 'it' in correct choice B is unambiguous. Thanks

gloomybison · Answer

Hi ExpertsGlobal5

why in this question, for example in option B, we think that it is comparing weight to a time frame,
The weight of the average American male is roughly fifteen percent greater today than fifty years ago

Whereas; in this question, we can safely say that comparison is between time periods
https://gmatclub.com/forum/all-major-ca ... 44744.html

All major Canadian cities reported significantly higher hotel occupancy in the four months from June through September last year than during a similar period a year earlier

vs

All major Canadian cities reported significantly higher hotel occupancy in the four months from June through September last year than that during similar period a year earlier

What really defines what is compared to what in comparison questions?

Many thanks for your kind replies:)

thakurarun85 · Answer

I have learned that "it" is used when same noun is considered for the comparison, however "that" is used when you need to have another copy of the noun for comparison.

Now

When we say

The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen percent greater than it was fifty years ago.

are not we talking about same weight of Amari can male today?

any expert help will be appreciated.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  gloomybison ,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can help resolve your doubt.

Typically, if a sentence uses a construction along the line of "is more...than" to draw a comparison, the elements being compared are those on either side of the construction.

We can see the same in the example you provided of Option B, wherein "The weight of the average American male" and "fifty years ago" are on either side of the construction "is...greater...than".

However, the linked question does not use such a construction; to help you understand, here is a simplified version of the same - "There was significantly higher hotel occupancy in A than during B."

Thus, in the linked question, the correct answer compares the similar phrases "in the four months" and "during a similar period", and the incorrect one compares "in the four months" to "that". In both cases, the first point of comparison is "in the four months", not "hotel occupancy".

We hope this helps. 
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

VerbalBot · Answer

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The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen perce

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The weight of the average American male today is roughly fifteen perce

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