CHIRANJEEV SINGH
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Question

According to a recent study, retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children as to receive it from them.

Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E

(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)

Solution

Sentence Analysis

  • According to a recent study, (Prepositional phrase modifying the main clause)
  • retirees in the United States are four times more likely (Main subject: retirees; Main Verb: are)
    • to give regular financial aid to their children (First part of the comparison)
    • as to receive it from them. (Second part of the comparison)

The sentence says that per recent study, the chances that retirees in the US give financial aid to their children are four times greater than the chances that such retirees receive financial aid from the children.

The only error in this sentence is that it uses ‘more…as’ structure, which is deterministically wrong. We should use either ‘as…as’ structure or ‘more…than’ structure.

Option Analysis

(A) Incorrect. For the error mentioned above.

(B) Incorrect. The part after as is ‘it is for them to receive it from them’, which doesn’t make any sense.

(C) Correct.

(D) Incorrect. The part after than is ‘they are to receive it from them’ is not parallel to the first part of the comparison. This construction would be valid in the following structure:

Retirees in the United States are four times more likely to give regular financial aid to their children than they are to receive it from them. (Even though the construction is workable, it is quite inferior because of a deluge of pronouns after ‘than’)

However, in this sentence, this construction is incorrect. The option can be made correct in the following way:

It is four times more likely for retirees in the United States to give regular financial aid to their children than to receive it from them.

Even though the above construction is correct, it is still inferior to the construction in option C because option C communicates the same idea in a direct manner without using the placeholder ‘it’.

(E) Incorrect. Similar problem as in option D – the part after second ‘as’ is not parallel to the first part of the comparison. It can be made parallel in the following way:

It is four times as likely that retirees in the United States will give their children regular financial aid as that such retirees will receive it from them.

 Even though the above construction is parallel, it is much inferior to the construction in option C, which is a more direct and common way to express the same idea.

If you have any doubts regarding any part of this solution, please feel free to ask in the comments section.

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