<p>Or at least CB designates this a 5...</p>
<p>Twice as many bird species inhabit Ecuador as in North America.
(A) as in
(B) as inhabit
(C) instead of in
(D) when compared to
(E) than</p>
<p>Correct answer is (B), why is this the case?
Also, whenever you use "twice as many....." is it true that you never use "than"?
I put (D) lol.</p>
<p>answer definitely has "as" in it. i was going to choose A. i guess i want some explanation as well...</p>
<p>Hehe, I just went over this question two days ago. Definitely the weirdest writing question I've seen.</p>
<p>inhabit has the definition of "living in" so using "as (inhabit) in" would be incorrect (redundant.. living in in).</p>
<p>I said B before looking at the answer. Sometimes it's hard to just say it yourself to see if it sounds right when the questions are worded like this.</p>
<p>The other ones really don't make sense, B made the most sense to me.</p>
<p>Parallel construction</p>
<p>This <em>is</em> a hard question. Let me give you the short version.</p>
<p>First of all, whenever we use one "as," we need a second "as." You can't say "I'm twice AS fast WHEN COMPARED TO him," right? </p>
<p>So our only choices are A and B, as tongchen said. </p>
<p>Now, "as. . . as" is the same kind of construction as "either. . . or" and "neither. . . nor." (They're all correlative conjunctions.) You guys remember how either/or and neither/nor always need parallel constructions? It's wrong to say "He NEITHER went to the circus NOR to the zoo," because "went to the circus" does not match "to the zoo." You'd have to say, "He went NEITHER to the circus NOR to the zoo."</p>
<p>The same rule applies here. </p>
<p>A is not parallel. What's more, there's no earthly use for "in" in this sentence.</p>
<p>B is parallel. "inhabit Ecuador" matches "inhabit North America."</p>
<p>I could go on and on 'cause it really is a weird question, but I think that's the shortest and simplest explanation.</p>
<p>lotf629's explanation is excellent. This is a good question to learn from.</p>