From the 17th century to the 19th century literacy rates all

Question

From the 17th century to the 19th century literacy rates all over western Europe increased at a relatively constant rate.

A. From the 17th century to the 19th century literacy rates all over western Europe increased at a relatively constant rate
B. There was a relatively constant rate of increase from the 17th century to the 19th century of literacy rates all over western Europe
C. Literacy rates all over western Europe increased at a relatively constant rate from the 17th century to the 19th century
D. At a relatively constant rate from the 17th century to the 19th century literacy rates increased all over western Europe
E. From the 17th century to the 19th century was an increase in literacy rates all over western Europe at a relatively constant rate

OA: I picked C, but OA is given as A.

ugimba · Answer

I pick C ... 
from X to Y is the idiom ... so here X and Y are nouns .. in option A, the Y part noun is misleading ... so A is not correct.

in C, parallelism is maintaine in 'from X to Y' idiom ..

sudeep · Answer

I think comma is missing in the option A for it to be correct.
Opinions?

acer2knight · Answer

yes a comma in A would make it right. Can you please check the question one more time

sudeep · Answer

Well this is what I got from the source. I checked it, that's why I post it to confirm.

Source is not too official, and have some minor issues.

I think we should leave the question here: not worth for further discussion in this case.

duttarupam · Answer

A.

C implies that constant rate changed from 17th century to 19th centure -  absurd

ugimba · Answer

agreed .. good observation ..thx.

sudeep · Answer

Why do you think so?

I do not agree that C implies that constant rate changed.
X increased at a constant rate. (what is the problem with this sentence?)

mokri · Answer

Even though C seems right, I am more inflicted to A after seeing duttaroopam's explanation.

Thanks for the gimmick!

bakfed · Answer

I thought the "comma" that was supposed to be between the words "century" and "literary" can be dropped and still deemed grammatically correct (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). From time to time, I've been typing w/out the comma in between modifiers. Is it necessary to have that comma? If not, it clearly explains why A may be the best answer. If the comma is absolutely necessary, then I think the question shows one best thing that ETS likes to test: pick the best answer OUT OF the answer choices provided, so be it that the answer may not be the absolutely best in the English world...

apoorvasrivastva · Answer

the sentence flow indicates as though the literacy rate increases from 17th Century to 19th Century

Placement of  'from the 17th century to the 19th century'  is wrong in 'C', 
and distorts the meaning of the sentence. It illogically states that the literacy rate which was '17th century' earlier, increased to '19th century' later.
Placement of the expression 'from the 17th...century' just before 'literacy rates' , corrects this error in 'A'.

these are few of the explanations that i found on the forums...I was of the opinion that A is coreect..but couldn't frame my reasoning for it!!

HTH

sprtng · Answer

i suppose C can't be right since at a constant rate from 17th century to 19th century...could it be somewhat hinting the rate is from 17th century?

at first glance, i picked C, but after looking at it again, it does look strange...

kjumbala · Answer

This makes me clear. Thank you.

From the 17th century to the 19th century literacy rates all

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