94 PRACTICE EXERCISES FOR STRUCTURE

EXERCISE 46: Sentences-Comparatives

In some sentences in the Structure Section on the Paper-Based TOEFL, you will be asked to iden-
tify the correct comparative. A comparative can be a word or phrase that expresses similarity or differ-
ence. A comparative can also be a word ending like -er or -est that expresses a degree of comparison
with adjectives and adverbs. Choose the correct answer in the incomplete sentences. Choose the incor-
rect word or phrase in the underlined choices.

1. Tuition at an American university runs 7. The seed heads of teasel plants raise the
___ twenty thousand dollars a semester. nap on coarse tweed cloth than do
© so high as the machine tools invented to replace them.
CD as high to © more efficiently
<D as high as CD efficiently
CID as high than <D more efficient
CID most efficient
2. Alligators are about the same color than
---ct) CD 8. Benjamin Franklin was the editor of
crocodiles, although the adults may be ©
<D the larger newspaper in the colonies, a
slightly darker with broader heads and CD
diplomatic representative to France and later
blunter noses.
® to England, and the inventor of many useful
© (])
3. Laser discs provide images of best quality devices.
© CD
than those of either television signals or 9. The standard for cleanliness in the area
<D ~
video tapes. where a microchip is manufactured is
© CD <D
4. The cost of a thirty-second commercial on same that of an operating room in a hospital.
a network television station is for ®
most businesses.
© so much 10. The North American robi n is only _ _
CD much the European and African robins.
<D very much © half big
CID much too much CD as big half
<D half as big as
5. The New York City subway system is CID big by half
©
the most longest underground railroad 11. Mountain bikes differ ordinary bicycles in
CD <D ©
operating in the world. that they have ten or more gears, a
CID CD
more rugged frame, and wider treads on
6. School children in the same grade in <D (])
© the tires.
American schools are usually the same old
® <D (]) 12. As a rule, the more rapid the heart rate,
as their classmates. © CD <D
faster the pulse.
<ID
 STRUCTURE SECTION: EXERCISE 46 95

13. In U.S. law, a misdemeanor is a crime that 17. The North's abundance of industry and
is a felony, and usuaJly carries a commercial wealth proved to be a greater
term of impri onment of le s than one year advantage in determining the
for most offenses. outcome of the Civil War.
© lesser than © than originally thought
<E> less severe than <E> that originally thought
<D less than severe <D as originally thought
(]) severely lesser (]) originaJly thought

14. Although both are mammals, the early 18. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair of 1969
stages of development on the part of captured the essence of the counterculture
placentals differ from movement of the 1960s
© marsupials © most than any of other events
<E> that of marsupials @ best that any other event
<D those of marsupials <D than any other events
(]) those marsupials (]) better than any other event

15. Eli Whitney's cotton gin enabled the cotton 19. Alike her friend and fellow impressionist
producers of the early nineteenth century to ©
increase their production by times artist, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt used
the amount produced prior to the invention. <ID ©
© more fifty brush strokes and colors in new and
<E> more as fifty
<D more than fifty different ways.
(]) most than fifty CID

16. _ _ 250,000 species of fo sils have 20. A dancer, while always graceful and
been discovered in both organized, precise in her movements, trains
scientific searches and by sheer accident. any other athlete.
© As much as © as strenuously
<E> As many as <E> more strenuously as
<D As many <D as strenuously as
CID Many as (]) as strenuously that

Refer to pages 419-420 for the Explanatory Answers.