In the early songs of the Beatles, one hears melodies that would seem to be more (a product of rural southern America than that of an English industrial city.)

Correct: a product of rural southern America than of an English industrial city.

Why is the original incorrect? Doesn’t the comparison starts immediately after “more”? So if you have “a product” right after “more” on one side, you must have “a product” on the other. Thus, A PRODUCT of a place is compared to A PRODUCT of another place?

The comparison does start after “more,” but there are elements of a comparison that don’t need to be repeated if they wouldn’t change. We don’t need to say “a product” twice, nor do we need to use something (“that”) in place of it.

Comments (3)

Are you sure the original question wasn’t:
“In the early songs of the Beatles, one hears melodies that would seem to be more [a product of rural southern America than an English industrial city].”?

If it was, then I believe that the answer choice you thought was correct was:
[a product FROM rural southern America than that of an English industrial city]

In that case, I think another reason that answer choice would be wrong is because it has faulty parallelism (“from” vs “of”).

Found question on:
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This question is from the Online Course, I believe. The person who submitted it seems to have asked directly about the choice he/she chose that was incorrect, rather than type all the choices.

You’re wrong about what I thought was right, though. The answer choice the original poster called correct is indeed correct.

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