doubling vs twice: According to surveys by the National Inst

[ntr1989512]

According to surveys by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about 20 percent ofyoung adults used cocaine in 1979, doubling those reported in the 1977 survey.
(A) doubling those reported in the 1977 survey
(B) to double the number the 1977 survey reported
(C) twice those the 1977 survey reported
(D) twice as much as those reported in the 1977 survey
(E) twice the number reported in the 1977 survey
OA is E

the resource is from prep
hi ron! i get stuck on E! since i remember you said the form of "twice as many\much as" can only modify the noun that comes immediately before the comma. in addition, "the number" is an explicitly numerical quantity, so you can't say"twice as many\much as the number" rather than"twice the number". in E "twice the number reported in the 1977 survey" is followed by "in 1979", so "twice the..."should modify 1979. it doesn't make sense. so why E is right?

finally, i want to pose your saying to make what i say above more clear, please help me out of this problem, because i have posed this problem in other thread since 2 weeks ago! just help me.
thanks

if you're going to say COMMA + "twice as many as...", then that's incorrect unless there's actually a quantity in front of the comma.
e.g.
last year i read 40 books, twice as many as i read in the preceding year
--> correct
last year the number of books i read increased dramatically, twice as many as i read in the preceding year
--> incorrect.

&

here's the basic idea:

if you say "twice as many", then this construction should be paired with a countable noun.
e.g., twice as many dogs --> "dogs" is a countable noun

if you said "twice as much", then this construction should be paired with an uncountable noun.
e.g., twice as much water --> "water" is an uncountable noun

if the noun in question is already an explicitly numerical quantity, then you should use neither "much" nor "many". instead, you should just use "twice" or "double" by itself.
e.g., twice the increase --> "increase" is an explicitly numerical quantity

these rules are followed pretty closely.
so, for instance:
twice as much water --> correct, since "water" is an uncountable noun (but is not an explicitly numerical quantity)
twice the water... --> incorrect, since water is not a numerical quantity

twice as much as the increase... --> incorrect; redundant
twice the increase... --> correct.

[ntr1989512]

The number of people flying first class on domestic flights rose sharply in 1990, doubling the increase of the the previous year.

a.
b. doubling that of the increase in
c. double as much as the increase of
d. twice as many as the increase in
e. twice as many as the increase of

OA is A
you said E is wrong, because that's an appositive modifier. appositives must modify some noun that comes IMMEDIATELY before the comma

[ntr1989512]

can anyone help me?

[tim]

As per the forum rules, we need a verifiable source for the problem before we can deal with this question. If the question is not one of ours or one that is copyright-free, we will have to delete the question..

[ntr1989512]

As per the forum rules, we need a verifiable source for the problem before we can deal with this question. If the question is not one of ours or one that is copyright-free, we will have to delete the question..

i have wrote its resource down in front of this thread.
it's absolutely from prep!!

[tim]

"prep" does not mean anything. you have to be more specific..