There is a widespread belief in the US and Western Europe that young people have a smaller commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents and that the source of the change lies in the collapse of the 'work ethic'.

A. a smaller commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents

B. less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents

C. a smaller commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents

D. less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents had

E. a lessening of the commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents had


In D - the shouldn't the verb be DID ??

Also ... can we omit the second verb here... as there is NO ambiguity. like in choice B ??


E.g SC 75 OG 11 - yellow book

Please clarify...Thanks

'had' actually creates better parallelism, as it's parallel to 'have' in the first part.




no.
there is ambiguity if you eliminate the helping verb.
without the helping verb, there are two interpretations:
1: young people are less committed to work/career than WERE their parents/grandparents (the intended meaning)
2: young people are less committed to work/career than TO their parents/grandparents
you can't tell which of these is the correct meaning without the helping verb; therefore, the helping verb is necessary.