The financial crash of October 1987 demonstrated that the world’s capital markets are integrated more closely than never before and events in one part of the global village may be transmitted to the rest of the village—almost instantaneously.

(A) integrated more closely than never before and
(B) closely integrated more than ever before so
(C) more closely integrated as never before while
(D) more closely integrated than ever before and that
(E) more than ever before closely integrated as

OA is D. Why can't be B be the option. OG says moving 'more' distorts the meaning. I can understand that next clause should not be started with 'so'. But Please let me know how the position of 'more' effects the sentence.

Thanks

Aishwary

As an analogy, here's a pair of sentences in which the comparable difference in meaning is much starker.
(1) Legal disputes in the field have been resolved satisfactorily more than ever before.
(2) Legal disputes in the field have been resolved more satisfactorily than ever before.

You can probably see the difference: #1 says that increasing numbers of legal disputes are being resolved in a manner that is truly satisfactory. #2, on the other hand, says that the degree to which the disputes' resolutions are satisfactory has been on the rise, but the resolutions still may not be truly satisfactory.

Although the difference is more subtle in this problem, it's the same idea.
* Choice B says that close integration occurs more frequently (or among more markets) than before, but that the degree of closeness of integration has NOT necessarily changed;
* Choice D, along with the original sentence, says that the degree to which the markets are closely integrated has gone up markedly.

Thanks Ron,

It was really an excellent explanation.

-Aishwary

I agree - nice one, Ron!