Quote:
OA is "D"......I always get confused with comparatives .....can someone help...2 fold ques...
1) when to use "than that of" vs just "than"......
2) more so when there are possesives involved....like "than those of last year's"....like in E....isn't this correctly saying "yields of last year" by using possesvie "those of last year's"..
Banerjee,
I think your questions are very valid and I had similar doubts earlier:
1) when to use "than that of" vs just "than"......
Example:
* GMAT is tougher than SAT
(Here we are comparing GMAT and SAT and not the properties of the tests so
than is good enough)
* A question in GMAT is tougher than that in SAT
(Here we are comparing a property of GMAT with a property of SAT so
than that is needed).
'that' refers to the subject -
a question. A good way to check will be replace 'that' with the 'a question' and see if it is right.
In plural form, we use
those to replace a plural subject
* Questions of GMAT are tougher than those of SAT
'those' refers to the plural subject -
questions. A good way to check will be replace 'those' with 'questions' and see if it is right.
2) more so when there are possesives involved....like "than those of last year's"....like in E....isn't this correctly saying "yields of last year" by using possesvie "those of last year's"..
Again, the simplest way to test this is by replacing
those with
yields
'yields of last year" is correct
'yields of last year's" is wrong because
of is already doing the job of the possesive.
Hope that helps.