Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia wer

Question

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
 For SC butler Questions  Click Here

Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia were much more common among Navajo and Apache children  than other children in the United States .

A) than other children in the United States

B) than among other children in the United States

C) than is so of other children of the United States

D) compared to other children in the United States

E) in comparison with other children of the United States

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2)

THE PROMPT  
 
• Meaning? 
Meningitis and pneumonia were much more common among Navajo and Apache children than   other children in the United States.
• Tracking on the comparison
→ first, don’t get discouraged. Parallelism in comparisons is one of the most difficult subjects in SC. 
→ second, take note of the way that I used brackets in the sentence above. 
-- from those brackets, you can see that the items under comparison are the frequency of the diseases in one group of children and the frequency of the diseases in another group of children.
-- “frequency of disease in one group of children” = frequency of the diseases  among  those children. (The first  among  is given to you; I’m just showing you how the comparison language works.)
 
• among Navajo and Apache children,  other children in the United States  were more common than meningitis and pneumonia? No. 
• stated differently (and just as absurdly): other children in the U.S. were more common among Navajo and Apache children than meningitis and pneumonia were common among Navajo and Apache children? No. 
Wrong comparison. See my analysis beneath the prompt.
• Also, I wrote     in brackets at the end of this option.

→ As is true of many comparisons on the GMAT, we have an elliptical construction.
→ If you have no idea or only a vague idea what I am talking about,   see my recent post on ellipsis, substitution, and parallelism, which you can find by    clicking   here .
ELIMINATE A

• I see no errors
• Now we are correctly comparing frequency of disease among one group of children with frequency of disease among another group of children
KEEP

• the verb  is  does not stay parallel with the  non-underlined  verb  was 
•  watch the verb tenses.  The mismatch between  was  and  is  is fatal.

ELIMINATE C

• do not use comparison words such as  compared to  in sentences that also use comparative structures such as  more . . . than. 
→ the comparison structure  more . . .than   already  indicates comparison. 
→ saying “compared to” in this sentence is redundant
ELIMINATE D
 
• Same problem as that in option D
→ do not use comparison words such as  in comparison with  in sentences that use  more . . . than 
ELIMINATE E

The correct answer is B

COMMENTS

Did you all know that crickets can tell you the temperature?
I like cricket song, which happens to be very . . . chirpy . . . at the moment.

The U.S. Library of Congress explains how to use crickets to find the temperature  here . Scientific American's version is  here .

Here is my question: which human being sat there counting cricket chirps, comparing them to the temperature, and figuring out the pattern?
Ingenious.

Kudos go to those who  explained  . Have a good rest of your weekend, and please be safe.

zhanbo · Answer

My choice is  (B) . It took me 46 seconds.

While there might be exceptions, I make a point to prefer "more ... than..." construct. On top of that, apply parallelism rule to make "apple vs. apple" comparison.

(A) No parallelism with "among Navajo and Apache children"
(C) See (A)
(D) Prefer "more ... than ..."
(E) See (D)

Varunsawhney8 · Answer

Eliminate D and E for not having than for comparison
In A and C comparison is not done between like things
So answer is B

Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia were much more common among Navajo and Apache children  than other children in the United States .

A) than other children in the United States

B) than among other children in the United States

C) than is so of other children of the United States

D) compared to other children in the United States

E) in comparison with other children of the United States

Posted from my mobile device

sood1596 · Answer

More than... is used

M and P were more common among ...... than among.....

A) incorrect comparison

B ) correct. As discussed above

C) is so?

D) compared to is incorrect parallelism and comparison

E) similar to D

Answer - B

Posted from my mobile device

Ranasaymon · Answer

Lets check an example; 
1. My uncle has more love for pizza than his wife  Incorrect 
This sentence has two meanings, creating ambiguity.

First, My uncle loves pizza, and he loves his wife too. But he loves pizza more than he loves his wife. To convey the meaning we need to use preposition 'for' before 'his wife' 
 -> My uncle has more love for pizza than for his wife  Correct  
Second, My uncle loves pizza, and his wife also loves pizza. But he loves pizza more than his wife does. To convey the meaning we need to use does/has with 'his wife'
 -> My uncle has more love for pizza than has his wife  Correct

Original question: 
Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia were much more common among Navajo and Apache children than other children in the United States.
 
Analysis:  This sentence creates ambiguous comparison. 
1. meningitis and pneumonia vs other children 
2. Navajo and Apache children vs other children 
Per the meaning, the comparison is between navajo and Apache children and other children. To convey the meaning, we need to use preposition 'among' before 'other children'

POE:  
A) than other children in the United States

=> The error is stated above
 
 B) than among other children in the United States

C) than is so of other children of the United States

=> Wordy and incorrect construction

D) compared to other children in the United States

=> more...than is a correct idiom ( more...compared to is incorrect)

E) in comparison with other children of the United States

=> more...than is a correct idiom ( more...in comparison is incorrect)

monk123 · Answer

Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia were much more common among Navajo and Apache children than other children in the United States.
 
POE:
Stop sign- than, comparison question. 
we are comparing children here; 'more among..... than among'. 
Eliminate (A), (C), (D) & (E)

A)  than other  children in the United States

B) than among other children in the United States -   CORRECT

C)  than is  so of other children of the United States

D) compared to other  children in the United States

E)  in comparison with other  children of the United States

anthien128 · Answer

IMO B is the correct answer.

The correct comparison usage is "more... than..."
 --> Eliminate D and E

In this sentence, we want to compare the popular of these vaccines between 2 groups of children. We do NOT compare 2 groups of children.
 --> Eliminate A because of wrong meaning
--> Eliminate C because this option is wordy

B is the only option left and have correct meaning.

agar123 · Answer

Meaning: 
Presence of "meningitis and pneumonia" diseases has been compared among "Navajo and Apache children" and other children in the United States". So the sentence structure should compare these two entities properly.

Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia were much more common among Navajo and Apache children than other children in the United States.

A)  than other children  in the United States -----> something (meningitis and pneumonia were much more common) among Navajo and Apache children compared with other children in the United States.

B) than among other children in the United States ----> Correct

C) than  is so of  other children of the United States -----> What is so of other children?? comparison is not clear.

D)  compared to other children  in the United States ----> Same issue as A

E) in comparison with other children of the United States -----> Same issue as A, something among Navajo and Apache children compared with other children

Regards,
agar123

XyLan · Answer

Sentence Structure  
  Subject  -  Verb  -  Modifier 
   Prior to the development of this vaccine,   
 meningitis and pneumonia   were  much more  common  
 among Navajo and Apache children 
 than  
among other children in the United States.

Generic Structure in Comparison:  
   X   is more   Y   than   Z

1) When it comes to SUBJECT-comparison(   X   ):   X   is compared to   Z  
  Ferrari  is more petrol-savvy than  Lamborghini

In this case: 2 thunder-blazen sports CARS are compared, 
  X  (  Ferrari  ) is compared to   Z  (  Lamborghini  )

2) When it comes to OBJECT-comparison(   Y   ):   Y   is compared to  Z 
 Ferrari is more  petrol-savvy  than  thrust-worthy .

In this case: 2 distinctive ATTRIBUTES of a sports car are compared, 
  Y  (  petrol-savvy  ) is compared to   Z  (  thrust-worthy  )

In GMAT-SC, context is GOD!
Thus, have an eye for detail and meaning.

Issues:   
 One needs to understand and compare apples with apples or similar terms.

The disease was much more common among Y than among Z:  Object Comparison between Y and Z. 
 Y: Navajo and Apache children 
Z: other children in the United States.

With "more" ---> "than" MUST be used:  compared  OR  in comparison with  is NOT apt.
 D and E :  Structural error

Answer choice analysis:   
A) than  other children  in the United States
   The comparison is NOT clear. OUT

B) than  among other children  in the United States
  Nice and easy.  B  is the champ!

C) than  is  so of other children of the United States
   SV error | Context error | Comparison error:  C  is inferior to  B . OUT

D)  compared to  other children in the United States
   Structural error. OUT

E)  in comparison with  other children of the United States
   Structural error. OUT

HoneyLemon · Answer

imo  B . easy one i must say .. took me 38 sec ..

Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia were much more common among Navajo and Apache children  than other children in the United States .

A) than other children in the United States 
  -- Wrong comparison .. among Navajo and Apache children is compared with other children
 
B) than among other children in the United States
 --  Correct  .. 
 
C) than is so of other children of the United States
  -- Parallelism err .. 
  
D) compared to other children in the United States
 -- Wrong idiom more than is required 
 
E) in comparison with other children of the United States
 -- Wrong idiom more than is required

vivek2611 · Answer

Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia were  much more common among  Navajo and Apache children than other children in the United States.

expecting correct form of idiom and parallelism as below.
much more common among X... than among

IMO B

winterschool · Answer

Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia were much more common among Navajo and Apache children than other children in the United States.

A) than  other children  in the United States

Incorrect  - comparison error, common among vs other children

B) than among other children in the United States

Correct

C) than  is so of  other children of the United States

Incorrect  - awkward construction

D)  compared to  other children in the United States

Incorrect  - more.......than

E)  in comparison with  other children of the United States

Incorrect  - more.......than

Sushil117 · Answer

as per parallelism only option B is the right one 
among Navajo and Apache children...among other children
so B is the answer

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia wer

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Prior to the development of this vaccine, meningitis and pneumonia wer

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