Anyone know why this past SAT question is correct?

Test Preparation
1

<p>Note: some insignificant words slightly changed:</p>

<p>The crowds that flocked to the world's fair in New York in 1895 were larger and more enthusiastic than the crowds at the World's fair in London had been a few years earlier.</p>

<p>SAT said the above was correctly written as the best choice, and I would like to know why choice E below wouldn't be equally or more correct?</p>

<p>Choice E reads: "in comparison to those at the World's Fair in Paris" </p>

<p>Thanks to anyone who can help.</p>

2

<p>I’m thinking that “than” is less wordy than “in comparison to”, and “crowds” is more specific than “those”…</p>

3

<p>Mmm… yes, maybe it’s “less wordy”, but since supposedly answers are supposed to be more “black and white” than merely feeling something is “less wordy”, I was thinking there must be a specific grammar rule at work here. Especially since it was the last question in the writing section. Can anyone else please weigh in?</p>

4

<p>brevity. “than” is just as good as “in comparison to” and on the SATs, if it dwindles down to two answers, brevity’s your best shot</p>

<p>hope this helps!</p>

5

<p>Brevity yes and leaves out a few years earlier maybe? And was one really London and the other Paris. That’s weird…</p>

6

<p>avatar - then the briefer one would have been choice A (no error) rather than choice E based on your logic… :frowning: and sorry, I just changed the “places” so that I wasn’t copying the exact question.</p>

7

<p>Because this sentence:
“The crowds that flocked to the world’s fair in New York in 1895 were larger and more enthusiastic ‘in comparison to those at the World’s Fair in Paris’ had been a few years earlier” is gramatically incorrect. Read it out loud; it’s really awkward.</p>

8

<p>But WHY is it “grammatically incorrect”? - I mean, “feeling” that something sounds awkward and writing or saying it differently in “real life” is fine, but on the SAT, is “sounding awkward” a sufficient enough reason? Shouldn’t there exist a very specific rule? Several people wrote to me with very plausible reasons, but no two people seem to agree on the same reason … so I’m still not 100% certain of “why” the latter choice (choice E on the test) would be incorrect to select.</p>

9

<p>The expression is “less than” NOT “less in comparison to.” It’s what is known as a “mixed construction”.</p>

10

<p>If E gives you this sentence: “The crowds that flocked to the world’s fair in New York in 1895 were larger and more enthusiastic ‘in comparison to those at the World’s Fair in Paris’ had been a few years earlier”</p>

<p>then it’s incorrect.
“had been” should be eliminated, so that the end of the sentence would read “in comparison to those at the World’s Fair in Paris a few years earlier.”</p>

<p>In the original sentence, “had been” refers to the crowds. The crowds had been larger and more enthusiastic a few years earlier. In the sentence that answer E gives you, “had been” shouldn’t be there because we are no longer talking about the crowds, but rather the World’s Fair in Paris. We aren’t talking about the crowds in this sentence because we substituted it with “those” in “in comparison to those.” In other words, if the two world’s fairs had been in the same year, the end of the sentence could simply be “in comparison to those at the World’s Fair in Paris.” No “had been” there. The “few years earlier” part is in there to throw people off.</p>

<p>That probably sounded really confusing, but hope it helps.</p>