Lesson: Comparisons - Part II

If we write "any student," then we are including Sanjay.

For example, let's say that a class consists of Ann, Bea, Cal and Sanjay. If I direct you to choose ANY student in the class, then you could select any student from the set {Ann, Bea, Cal, Sanjay}.

So, if we say that Sanjay is smarter than ANY student in his class, then we are saying that Sanjay is smarter than each member in the set {Ann, Bea, Cal, Sanjay}.

This means that Sanjay is smarter than Ann, Sanjay is smarter than Bea, Sanjay is smarter than Cal, and Sanjay is smarter than Sanjay.

Use "that" when replacing a singular noun, and use "those" when replacing a plural noun.

That seems reasonable to me. You've included the word "process," so it's clear what we're comparing here.

Cheers,
Brent

Yes it is correct.

For discussions and analysis, see the following:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/faced-with-an-estimated-2-billion-161540.html

http://www.beatthegmat.com/faced-with-an-estimated-2-billion-budget-gap-...

http://www.beatthegmat.com/faced-with-an-estimated-2-billon-t80395.html

As long as there is no ambiguity, then omitting words is fine (since it results in a sentence that's more concise). That's the most important concept to keep in mind.

Here's a quiz for less/fewer (bottom of page): http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/fewerless.html

Much/more (bottom of page): http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/muchmore.html

Still looking for a placeholder quiz!!

Hi Kate,

Here's one: The sky is bluer in Vancouver than IT is in Winnipeg.

Cheers,
Brent

Question link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-number-of-undergraduate-degrees-in-engine...

We can say that X is twice Y, which means X = 2Y
So, if we say that Vancouver's annual rainfall is twice that of Seattle, then we're saying:
Vancouver's rainfall = 2(Seattle's rainfall)

The same goes for "double"
So, if we say that Vancouver's annual rainfall is double that of Seattle, then we're saying:
Vancouver's rainfall = 2(Seattle's rainfall)

When it comes to the word "increase," we typically note the increase with an actual value (e.g., "The temperature increased 5 degrees." OR we note the proportional change (e.g., "The population increased 5 percent"0

Answer choices A and B combine "increase" with "twice" and "two times." This is both redundant and somewhat nonsensical.

Answer choice D says "WAS more than doubled." This suggests that some entity acted to do the doubling. Here's an analogous sentence:

"Joe WAS hit" - this suggests that something or someone hit Joe.

Alternatively, "Joe hit" suggests that it was Joe who performed the action of hitting.

Since there was no THING or PERSON doubled the number of undergraduate degrees, answer choice D is incorrect.

Cheers,
Brent

Link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/heating-oil-prices-are-expected-to-be-higher-...

WERE and DID are both fine here.

A) ...refiners are paying ... more for crude oil than they were (were PAYING) last year.
Here, the word PAYING is implied.

C) ...refiners are paying ... more than they did (PAID).
Here, the word DID serves as a placeholder for PAID.

Cheers,
Brent

I think the first two are fine, but the third sentence has an ambiguity problem. The ambiguity lies in whether the maple trees shed their own leaves or some other trees' leaves.

Analogous sentence: Abbie brushes hair.
This could be interpreted as Abbie brushing hair other than her own.

There are a couple of problems with that sentence:

1) We need something that modifies GOVERNMENT, so we know WHICH government is involved.
e.g., The CANADIAN GOVERNMENT barred online....

2) There's a problem with "... where THEY hold stakes."
It's unclear who THEY is referring to.
THEY could refer to GOVERNMENT, or THEY could refer to FLIPKART and AMAZON.

Cheers,
Brent

That's a perfect sentence.
IT logically refers to "the chemical engineer certification process," and we have parallelism with "IN Peru" and "IN Brasil"

Question link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/despite-its-covering-the-entire-planet-earth-...

I'm assuming you're referring to the correct answer, D, which is:
(D) Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but rather fragmented into mobile semirigid plates.

We don't necessarily need a clause after BUT.
For example: Joe enjoys salmon and trout, BUT not tuna.
Or: Joe did not avoid his enemies, but rather invited them to dinner.

Question link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/financial-uncertainties-from-the-accident-at-...

The sentence compares the deterring effects of two things: Financial uncertainties and political opposition

Financial uncertainties ARE deterring to the nuclear industry
And, political opposition IS deterring to the nuclear industry

So, even though we're reversing the word order (...than IS political opposition), we still have subject-verb agreement with the singular noun OPPOSITION and the singular verb IS.

Does that help?

Sorry, but I prefer not to answer unofficial Verbal questions since they often don’t represent what you’ll encounter on test day (please see comment policy)

That said, for answer choice D, there's an issue with ARE.

(D) Independent contractors pay higher taxes and are paid less consistently than ARE statutory employees
We have two pieces of information about independent contractors:
1) They PAY higher taxes
2) They ARE PAID less consistently
Here, PAY is active and ARE PAID is passive.
This presents a problem regarding whether we should say "than DO statutory employees" or "than ARE statutory employees.

If we focus solely on the first piece of information we have: Independent contractors PAY higher taxes than ARE statutory employees. In this case, it should be "than DO statutory employees"

If we focus solely on the second piece of information we have: Independent contractors ARE PAID less consistently than ARE statutory employees. In this case, it makes sense to have "than ARE statutory employees"

Here, we are comparing TODAY'S USER EXPERIENCE to THE USER EXPERIENCE LAST YEAR.

In "The user experience on this website is superior to a year ago," we are comparing user EXPERIENCE to last YEAR, which doesn't work.

Fix A: The USER EXPERIENCE on this website is superior to the USER EXPERIENCE a year ago.
or
Fix B: The USER EXPERIENCE on this website is superior to THAT if a year ago.

There are two kinds of ambiguity with sentence 1: S cannot paint a picket fence as quickly as R.

First, the sentence could be read as: S cannot paint a picket fence as quickly as [S can paint R] R.

Second, when we omit the part after R, we must assume the missing part is in the same format as the shown part. This means we get: S CANNOT paint a picket fence as quickly as R [CANNOT paint a picket fence]. This, of course, changes the meaning.

This kind of omission, however, works for sentence 2: S CAN swim faster than R [CAN swim].

Does that help?