Many fear the epidemic of obesity in America; the amount of food consu

Question

Many fear the epidemic of obesity in America; the amount of food consumed per person in America is  as much as thrice that consumed in Japan .

(A) as much as thrice that consumed in Japan

(B) as much as thrice that of Japan’s consumption

(C) up to three times of Japan’s consumption

(D) up to three times what Japanese consumed

(E) up to triple the amount the Japanese consumed

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

Option A .Correct

B.Food consumed per person is wrongly compared to food consumed by japan(as a whole)

C.Same wrong comparison as in option B.

D.Upto means anything from 0 to 3 times.. it means can consume 0 amount of food or 3 times of food also, so change in meaning.

E.Change in meaning same as in option D.

Sreyoshi007 · Answer

I'm not very good with comparisons and always make mistakes. 
I feel option E is correct as we are comparing amount of food consumed per person in America to the amount of food the Japanese consumed.
If someone could explain how to approach comparisons the right way, it would be of great help.
Thanks!

sudarshan22 · Answer

+1 for   A  .

(A)  as much as thrice  that consumed  in Japan  -->    "as much as thrice" is much concise and not wordy unlike "up to triple the amount" , "up to three times" , also the first part of sentence "....in America" should be parallel to latter part "...in Japan" unlike in other options "Japan’s consumption", and "Japanese consumed".

(B)  as much as thrice  that of  Japan’s consumption

(C)  up to three times  of  Japan’s consumption

(D)  up to three times  what  Japanese consumed
 
(E)  up to triple the amount  the  Japanese consumed

Hence,   A  .

sandman13 · Answer

+1 for A

"that" functions as a pronoun here. "that" = "the amount of food consumed per person"
Plugging this into the original:

Many fear the epidemic of obesity in America; 
the amount of food consumed per person in America is as much as thrice  the amount of food consumed per person  consumed in Japan.

^this works and maintains parallelism as well.

Bunuel · Answer

MANHATTAN REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

Up to three times of’ in C is idiomatically incorrect. The use of the past tense in D and E is incorrect. The sentence is referring to the present. Do not be confused by the use of the word ‘consumed’ in option A. This is not a use of the past tense. Rather it is a reduced relative clause. You could say ‘that which is consumed’. In this way option A can be seen to be using the passive voice, present tense. That

AnirudhChalla · Answer

Though option A is the best among the lot, It is not free from errors. The pronoun THAT refers to 'amount of food consumed per person'.
Plugging it in the sentence, we get - 'the amount of food consumed per person in America is as much as thrice the amount of food  consumed per person consumed  in Japan.'
 Consumed per person consumed doesn't make sense

massan · Answer

On top of other reasons, I removed option D and E because it compares ' the amount of food consumed per person of Japanese', and any Japanese can be in America so it's not a clear comparison.

is the reason above correct?

VerbalBot · Answer

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Many fear the epidemic of obesity in America; the amount of food consu

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Many fear the epidemic of obesity in America; the amount of food consu

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