Comparison

Question

Hi,

Which is the correct answer to the sentence correction question below?

In the 1980's, the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly the 1970's.

A) twice as fast as
B) twice as fast as it was in
C) twice what it was in
D) two times faster than that of
E) two times greater than

thanks,

/P

Ahava_yin · Accepted Answer

Hi,

It seems to me that the sentence would be better if changed into "In the 1980s, ...."
and B as well as D sound right to me.

Looking forward to other comments. Thank you.

Guest · Answer

Neither B nor D is correct.

Anyone else can help?

thanks,

/P

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Which is the correct answer to the sentence correction question below?

In the 1980's, the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly the 1970's.

A) twice as fast as
B) twice as fast as it was in
C) twice what it was in
D) two times faster than that of
E) two times greater than

thanks,

I would say B and C are strictly correct, but you hear a lot of people say A.
Clive

Clive · Answer

Hi,
I would say B and C are strictly correct, but you hear a lot of people say A.
Clive

Ppan · Answer

The correct answer is C.

This is also a question from a GMAT exam.

Btw, I chose B. I couldn't get any explanation from the ETS.

/P

CalifJim · Answer

This is an exercise in thinking clearly about words that name parameters and words that express the values of the parameters. Consider "Prices are getting very expensive these days". What's wrong with it? Well, you don't buy prices. You buy items that are for sale. So the correction is one of the following:

Prices are getting very high these days. (Prices can be higher or lower.)
Things are getting very expensive these days. (Things can be more or less expensive.)

That in mind, a rate is a ratio of numbers. In this case it is the number of additional people per some unit of time, say, a year.

Being basically just a number, a rate cannot go faster or slower; it can't be faster or slower. Which is faster, the number 50% or the number 60%? Well, neither is moving, so it's not a logical question, right? However, a number may be twice what another number is. 8 is twice 4, 12 is twice 6, and so on. So a rate can easily be twice what another rate was.
This eliminates A, B, and D, all of which use the word "fast(er)".

Second point: The correct expression is "in the 1980's" (1970's, ...)
This eliminates any choice which doesn't end in the word "in"; it eliminates A, D, and E.

(E is especially bad because it says the rate is greater than the years, which is comparing the incomparable, which makes for pure nonsense.)

Only C remains standing under this sort of scrutiny!

There may be other reasons to select C. See what other members post.

Ppan · Answer

I like your explanation. In particular, I like the 'price' example. I knew we should say 'a price is high or low'. It didn't occur to me that we should say 'a rate is high or low' too.

thanks, Jim

/P

Clive · Answer

Hi Jim,
You say that a rate is ‘just a number, a rate cannot go faster or slower’. My dictionary gives one meaning of rate as ‘a rapidity of movement or change’, eg a rate of 50 kph.
So why can’t one rapidity be faster than another? Do we really want to say that one rapidity is higher than another?

Can we not say that a rate of 50 kph is ‘faster’ than a rate of 20kph?

Regards,
Clive

Paco2004 · Answer

This problem is tricky. It seems to test students' ability to distinguish the scientific definition of the word 'rate' from the concept of the word 'rate' that people have and are using in everyday life. In science "a rate" is defined as the quantity of something that increases during a certain time span. Mathematically it is dX/dT here X is the quantity of the thing and T is time. As the rate in this sense is nothing but a quantity, we can't say "fast" or "slow" about it. What we can say about it is "large"/"great" or "small"/"little".

paco

CalifJim · Answer

Speaking loosely, yes, I think you can say that a rate of 50 kph is faster than a rate of 20 kph. Technically one rate is greater than the other. Strictly speaking, an object moving at 50 kph is moving faster than an object moving at 20 kph.

In my opinion, "rate", "rapidity", or "speed" are abstractions like "price" or "size". To me, saying that the speed (or rapidity) of one thing is faster than the speed (or rapidity) of another, rather than "greater", is like saying the the size of an object is getting bigger. "Size" is an abstract property of objects, an idea, a concept. Except metaphorically, ideas and concepts do not come in different sizes. There aren't any big concepts and little concepts. As a consequence, the object itself is getting bigger, not its size. Likewise, a vehicle may move fast or slow, but its speed cannot move at all. Comparing two things, neither of which moves, and saying one of these motionless things is faster than the other motionless thing just doesn't ring true - not in my brain anyway!

As regards "higher" instead of "greater", I think that that substitute is more characteristic of talk about prices. The use of "high" for prices is, shall we say, blessed by tradition. In many other cases, "greater" is the more appropriate word.

As I mentioned above, in less precise speech, these expressions are used all the time. Neverthless, in the context of an exam I would think in terms of more precision, especially in cases where nothing else seems likely to isolate what the test writers have determined, right or wrong, is the "correct answer".

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