Question

Difficulty: EasyFrequently Confused Words

The following sentence compares the temperatures of two planets. Which word correctly completes the comparison?

Answer:Astronomers have observed that Venus is much hotter 【than】 Mercury, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.

Answer

than
The sentence compares the temperature of Venus to Mercury. The conjunction 'than' is used to introduce the second part of a comparison.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine if the sentence requires a word indicating comparison or time/sequence.
The sentence compares the temperature of Venus to that of Mercury ('much hotter').
Identifying the comparative context helps distinguish between the frequently confused words 'than' and 'then'.
2
Apply the correct word choice rules.
Select 'than', which is the conjunction used to introduce the second element in a comparison.
'Than' is grammatically correct for comparisons, whereas 'then' is used to denote time or sequence.

Key Concept

Frequently Confused Words: Than vs. Then
Estimated Time:45s
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