Question

China's population is far greater than Britain's.
Choose the option that best corrects the underlined word. [Basic]

• A. as
• B. with
• C. since
• D. NO CHANGE

Answer 1

The correct option is D NO CHANGE

The given sentence is a comparison between the population of China and Britain. The subordinate clause (Britain's) depends on the main clause (China's population is far greater) for its full meaning. "Britain's" is an elliptical sentence i.e., a sentence that has missing information, but the information has been provided earlier "China's population is greater than". The underlined word 'than' is a conjunction used for comparison-related sentences, hence 'than' is correct and does not need to be replaced. Also, 'greater' is a comparative adjective and comparatives are mostly followed by 'than'. Hence, option D is correct. 'As' is used when the subordinate clause is an adverbial clause of manner, to represent how, or in what manner, something is done for example, "Do as you're told". Since the given sentence does not contain any adverbial clause of manner, option A is incorrect. 'With' is a preposition, whereas the required word is to be a conjunction, hence option B is incorrect. 'Since' is a conjunction used for time-related sentences, or cause-related sentences, depending on their context. As the sentence does not focus on time or cause, 'since' will not be used and option C is incorrect.