According to the national
According to the National Science Foundation, in 2003 there were 198,113 female science and engineering graduate students, almost 42% of the graduate students in those fields, twice as much as 1981.
(A) twice as much as 1981
(B) twice as many as 1981
(C) double the figure for 1981
(D) double what it was in 1981
(E) a number double that of 1981’s
My Ques: Please explain how is the answer C?
Option A translates to “nearly 2 x 1981”
Option B translates to “nearly 2 x 1981”
Option C translates to “198,113 is two times the figure for 1981”. This means in 1981 there were (198,113/2) female science and engineering graduate students. In 2003, the figure was 198,113 which is twice the figure for 1981.
Optin D: It is wordy to say “what it was in”. Concise sentence would be “double the figure for 1981”.
Option E: Grammatically correct sentence would be “a number double that of 1981” but not “a number double that of 1981’s” . But even this grammatically correct sentence distorts the meaning because it translates to “a number double the number of 1981”. Number of 1981 is meaningless
From above, it is clear that only option C is correctly worded.
Hi Riya,
To add on to Sandeep’s explanation,
In the option A, “much” incorrectly refers to the number of female graduate students. Since students are countable, “many” is the correct usage.
Also, both in A and B, there is an incorrect comparison between “the number of students in 2003” and “the year 1981”
