Question

November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks, but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers, accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.

• A. But sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers
• B. But even when it is compared with previous Novembers, this past November's sales
• C. But even when they are compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
• D. So that compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
• E. So that this past November's sales, even compared with previous Novembers' sales

Answer 1

The correct option is A But sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers

This sentence identifies November as traditionally being the month with the strongest sales of light trucks, and then goes on to indicate that even when compared to previous Novembers, this past November's sales accounted for a notably large portion of overall sales. It makes sense to make a comparison between sales in one November with sales in other Novembers. It does not make sense to compare sales to months, as in (C) and (D).

This version makes the correct comparison between sales in one particular November and sales in previous Novembers.