请教一道新东方网络课堂语法例题

Freedman's survey showed that people living in small towns and rural areas consider themselves no happier than do people living in big cities.
（A） no happier than do people living
（B） not any happier than do people living
（C） not any happier than do people who live
（E） no happier than are people who are living
（E） not as happy as are people who live

答案为A。我觉得原文比较部分的意思应该是说住在小城镇和郊区的人认为people living in big cities are happier than people living in small towns and rural areas .比较的目标应该是be happy 而不应该是consider.因此than后面的就不应该用助动词do，而应该用are。网络课堂的讲解说是比较consider，所以选A.我认为不妥，此处理解为比较be happy 应该更恰当一些啊

请各位赐教

og的解释

Choice A is correct. In B, C, and E, the phrases beginning with not in place of no are wordy and unidiomatic. In D and E, the use of are presents a verb substitution problem: are can not take the place of the verb consider, as do can in A, because consider is something that people do, not something that they are. D and E thus fail to compare the attitudes of the two groups of people, referring instead only to how those in small towns and rural areas consider themselves. E also distorts the intended meaning by saying that people living in small towns and rural areas consider themselves less happy than people living in big cities. The question is of middle difficulty.

这里的survey 在没有特殊说明的情况下，应该理解为调查所有的人people living in small towns and rural areas 和people living in big cities，所以合理的比较是两个人群之间的比较(比the attitudes of the two groups of people）：前者是consider themselves ，那后者也应是consider themselves (这里用do替代）。D, E用are替代了do改变了这种比较关系，因为no happier than are people 和not as happy as are people who live被看作是修饰语修饰themselves，这样只有前者在consider themselves ，故og说referring instead only to how those in small towns and rural areas consider themselves. E的not位置有错，可能not修饰consider更idiomatic，同时还改变了原意：no happier than 变成了not as happy as 。

翻译：people living in small towns and rural areas 认为自己happy的程度没有people living in big cities认为他们自己的高。

这里有两点：1.比较的对称。尽管D,E某种程度上也能说得通, 但A比它们来得更对称。2. A没有错误要尽量保留，这里除非D, E有明显强于A的表达方式，且不能改变句义。