Officials at the Unites States Mint believe that the Sacagawea dollar coin will be used more as a substitue for four quaters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight, only 8.1gms, is far less than four quaters, which weigh 5.67 gms each.

a) same
b) more as a substitute for four quaters than the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1gms, far lighter than
c) as a substitue for four quarters more than for the dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 gms, far less than
d) as a substitue for four quarters more than the dollar bill because its weight of only 8.1gms is far lighter than it is for
e) as a substitute more for four qurters rather than for the dollar bill because its weight , only 8.1gms, is far less than it is for

correct answer is C.

My question is there a sequence whether "more" or "substitute" comes first.

Will the following be correct too?
1) more as a substitute for four quarters than for dollar bill because it weighs only 8.1 gms, far less than

Thanks.

test

Please remember to use the first 8 words (or as many as will fit) as your subject heading.

You can do something like what you're suggesting, but you'd have to do this:
"more as a substitute for four quarters than as a substitute for a dollar bill"
this construction makes the idiom More X than Y, so the X and Y have to be parallel, thereby requiring us to repeat "as a substitute for" each time. Which is definitely not concise, but it could be right if you didn't have a more concise (and still grammatically correct) option.

Hello--Jad, Stacey, Ron

Doesn't C read as weight is less that FOUR QUATERS as in in other terms. In Short I think the comparision is Incomplete. What do you guys thinks? Is the comparision complete?

I thought none of the options were correct.

Well, seeing as it's GMATPrep, you know that one of the options is correct. These questions have been tested extensively - first to be used on the official GMAT and then only the best ones out of there were pulled for GMATPrep.

"it weighs only 8.1 grams, far less than four quarters, which weigh 5.67 grams each."

That's fine b/c it no longer uses "weight" as the subject (as choice A does). Instead, the coin itself (referred to here with the pronoun "it") is the subject - and I should compare coins to coins, hence "four quarters" rather than "the weight of four quarters."

Thanks Stacey, awesome explanation!!

Is the placement of "MORE" wrong in A? I think More for X than for Y . Is parallel and non-ambigious.

Saurabh Malpani

this question is answered here, in the first part of my rather lengthy quote-filled post.

the problem is not grammatical; rather, the problem is that there are two competing interpretations of that phrasing, and, unfortunately, both are legitimate.