SC #5 : Please post your answer with explanation

Question

Please post your answer with explanation.  

A decade after initiating the nation's most comprehensive and aggressive antismoking program,  per capita consumption of cigarettes in California declined from over 125 packs annually per person to about 60, a drop more than twice as great as  in the nation as a whole. 

B. annual per capita consumption of cigarettes in California declined from over 125 packs to about 60, more than twice as great as that 
C. California's annual per capita consumption of cigarettes declined from over 125 packs per person to about 60, more than twice as great as the drop 
D. California has seen per capita consumption of cigarettes decline from over 125 packs annually to about 60, a drop more than twice as great as that 
E. California has seen annual per capita consumption of cigarettes decline from over 125 packs per person to about 60, more than twice as great as that

imaru · Answer

D?

California has to be the subject so A, B, C are out.

Between D and E, D seems right because E is incomplete!

u2lover · Answer

A B and C can't be correct because "per capita" didn't intiate anything

is E complete? I think it was pasted wrong...

D has a problem with "MORE THAN TWICE AS GREAT" -> this is 100% redundancy problem!!!

E must be the answer assuming it will be complete :lol:

uvs_mba · Answer

Yes the answer is E because I just did this question last night, as this is from the list of SC that MAT was gathering and posting online=) The choice E listed here is missing some words :wink:

The explaination is somewhere in this forum as well. The problem with D is exactly what U2lover girl stated that "more than twice as great" is redundant.

Swagatalakshmi · Answer

I'm sorry for posting an incomplete answer choice. I corrected the mistake. Now give it a try.

u2lover · Answer

did you edit E correctly??? cause it has the same redunduncy issue

uvs_mba · Answer

Ok my bad. I just checked the answer for this, and the OA is D according to the answer key.

We know that this question had a modifier problem, so we were down to choices D and E.

I think D seems like a better choice because it mentions that a drop more than twice as great as

E says:

California has seen annual per capita consumption of cigarettes decline from over 125 packs per person to about 60, more than twice as great as that

So what is more than referring to? 60? I had picked E too initially but I had to go back to the answer choices as I did get it wrong.

Unfortunately I can't find the explaination. I know that there is a thread out there with lots of explaination on it

Maybe Matt knows since he was the one who had compiled the list of SC test 1 questions

If anybody else has the answer, please let us know.

Maybe Matt knows since he was the one who had compiled the list of SC test 1 questions

If anybody else has the answer, please let us know.

buzzgaurav · Answer

Picking D though skeptical.
Narrowed it down to D and E.

D is more clear than E since it mentions " a drop more than ".
Best option would have been : " a drop twice as great as that "

u2lover · Answer

drop and decline are the same thing, so how could D be the answer? :roll:

Fig · Answer

In (E), we have the redundance of per capita in per person.

sumitsarkar82 · Answer

In E...more than twice as great as that modifies 60 whereas it should be referring to the drop...

This is corrected by D...

GMATT73 · Answer

E uses the same redundancy. I don't know the source (but have a hunch it's from GMATPrep) of this question. It's somewhere in the archives and we had a lenghthy discussion about why (D) is better than E. I also originally chose E and that's why this problem was included in the brutal 75 SC list. 

For illustration:

 A decade after initiating the nation's most comprehensive and aggressive antismoking program, per capita consumption of cigarettes in California has seen per capita consumption of cigarettes decline from over 125 packs annually to about 60,  a drop  more than twice as great as that in the nation as a whole.  

After printing out all those pages and exhausting the list, I agree with the OA strictly because of the comparison marker,  a drop , used at the end of the sentence.

buzzgaurav · Answer

Never noticed that. One more reason as to why D is better than E.
Good observation.

bmwhype2 · Answer

E is also wrong because it is redundant. per capita and per person

SC #5 : Please post your answer with explanation

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards