2 sc questions,help!

cliffca

1. Sales of United States goods to non industrialized countries rose to $167 billion in 1992, (which is 14 percent more than the previous year) and largely offsets weak demand from europe and Japan.
a)..
b)which is 14 percent higher than it was the previous year
c)14 percent higher than the previous year's figure
d) an amount that is 14 percent more than the previous year was
e) an amount that is 14 percent higher than the previous year's figure

the answer is e, why not choose c?

2. In the 1980's the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly (twice as fast as) the 1970's.
a)..
b)twice as fast as it was in
c)twice what it was in
d)two times faster than that of
e)two times greater than

liziyao

以AMOUNT 引导的同位语更清楚的指代了前面的数字，避免了具体数与FIGURE 的比较。

第二题参看LZM的解释，TWICE 后不能接副词。

tongxun

liziyao的回答已经清晰了，这里我再补充几点：（选项C太坏了，）因为：14 percent higher than the previous year's figure的14 percent 在语法上指带不明，逻辑上尚可推出，故不如AMOUNT引导清楚。另外，由于14 percent 前没有指带所以，又导致figure无具体比较对象。

tongxun

补充twice的解释：1）它一般用于数量上的翻倍，如twice as much as，但不能用语对形容词或副词的翻倍。2）twice是是副词，有时要注意它前面词的词性问题。

cliffca

thanks very much.
as to question 2, one point is important: "rate" can't be modified by "fast", it can only be modified by high or lower. so the only choice is c
am I right?

tongxun

no ! your opinoin in "rate" is not adequate in the ETS. my opinon of this question is the following :
a) the referent of word "it" in A is not clear.  
b) in...., in.....is  parell. it can refer to rate clearly

tongxun

也就是说，若rate表示速度时，可以用fast修饰。请看一下rate的多种意思。比如：用做费用时。