Dear MGMAT staff:

I have a SC question for you.

Although people in France consume fatty foods at a rate comparable to the United States, their death rates from heart disease are far lower in France.
A. Same
B. people in France amd the United States consume fatty foods at about the same rate, the
C. fatty foods are consumed by people in France at a comparable rate to the United States's, their
D. the rate of fatty foods consumed in France and the United States is about the same, the
E. the rate of people consuming fatty foods is about the sae in France and the United States, the


OA: B

I had a hard time deciding between B and D, and I ultimately chose D :-( Why is D wrong? Is it because D change the meaning of the original sentence (i.e.: how fast people actually consume fatty foods?)

Thanks so much!

Any takers???

i would think it important to mention the people eating the fatty foods, a detail that's neglected by choice (d).
but, more importantly,
"the rate of fatty foods consumed" doesn't make literal sense (and, remember, literal sense is the only kind of sense that's worth anything in this particular game).
it has 2 possible literal interpretations, neither of which makes any sense:
* a "rate of fatty foods" is somehow being consumed;
* the fatty foods, which are being consumed, have a "rate" that's all their own.

you should say the rate AT WHICH fatty foods are consumed.

Although people in France and the United States consume fatty foods at about the same rate, the death rates from heart disease are far lower in France.

OA says that the above sentence is correct.

However, i'm confused if we should actually rephrase the sentence to:

Although people in France and those in United States consume fatty foods at about the same rate, the death rates from heart disease are far lower in France.

My reason is because the 'correct' answer seems to be comparing people in France (HUMAN) & United States (COUNTRY) which doesn't make much sense.

Pls do shed some light on this.

first:
read this mini-lecture on the topic of "correct answers are correct".
read it over and over and over again until you understand it.
i'm not being snarky here; you will gain NOTHING from questioning the correctness of officially correct answers, and, moreover, you'll be wasting study time that you could actually be using productively.

second:
you're reading the construction as (people in france and the u.s.).
the correct interpretation is people in (france and the u.s.).

if there exists a correct interpretation of a parallel structure, then the existence of incorrect interpretations of that structure doesn't invalidate the correct interpretation. indeed, there are incorrect interpretations of just about any reasonably complex grammatical structure.

hey, Ron,
why E is not right?

Although people in France consume fatty foods at a rate comparable to the United States, their death rates from heart disease are far lower in France.

E. the rate of people consuming fatty foods is about the same in France and the United States, the

Although the rate is....., the death rates are.....

E looks perfect parallel in structure than other choices?

Couple of things

1) about the same in france and the US.. Not parallel. Moreover ..about the same.. awkward construction...

2) the death rates from heart disease are far lower in france ..

whose death rates ? We need a pronoun to fix this

E omits mention of the people in the US. While we can get away with using "people" only once in the structure "people in <France and the U.S.>" (as Ron discussed earlier), we can only apply "people" to both France and the U.S. because we have a single preposition phrase ("in France and the U.S.") with a parallelism marker (the word "and").

In E, we have:
<people in France> {end of prepositional phrase} <do something> at a rate comparable to <the United States>. Where are the people in the U.S.? :)

[editor: this analysis should say (a), not (e).]

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Refer to below post

Stacey - Aren't you are descibing option A; It is not E.

yeah, that should be (a). i'll indicate that above; nice catch.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

So what is wrong with E?

Ron, as how you explained "rate of fatty food" in B, then does "rate of people consuming fatty foods" in E mean "the rate of people" is somehow consuming fatty foods?

I"m confused here, Please explain.

Thanks

"of people consuming" is incorrect; you can't write "of + NOUN + VERBing" if the action of VERBing is the focus of the preposition.
see here:
post18293.html#p18293

also, the next poster is correct: choice (e) inadvertently states that "the rate of people" is consuming fatty foods. that doesn't make any sense.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

you don't seem confused; you have provided a correct explanation for why (e) is a wrong answer.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes