comparative form

[niuwa]

hi,
i have trouble in these sentenses:
1. Town C is 345 km nearer to Town A than Town B.
The above sentense means that Town C is 345 km nearer to Town A than Town C is near to Town B?
or
Town C is 345km nearer to Town A than Town B is near to Town A?
Which one is correct?
2. The air is fresher in the mountains than cities.
The air is fresher in the mountains than in the cities
which one is correct in above sentense?
Thank you.
Niuwa

[rewboss]

"Town C is 345 km nearer to Town A than Town B" means that the distance between Town C and Town A is 345 km less than the distance between Town C and Town B. The other version is understandable, but nobody would ever say it that way. It's longer than it needs to be.

"The air is fresher in the mountains than cities" is, strictly speaking nonsense. It sounds as if you're comparing air to cities, when in fact you want to compare the air in mountains to the air in cities; so the second version is better.

[niuwa]

Thank you for your reply.
1. If "Town C is 345 km nearer to Town A than Town B" means that the distance between Town C and Town A is 345 km less than the distance between Town C and Town B, can I add the word "to" after the word "than"? (Town C is 345 km nearer to Town A than to Town B) Is it clearer?
2. What do you think if i add "is" after "Town B" like this: Town C is 345 km nearer to Town A than Town B is. Does it mean that the distance between Town C and Town A is 345 km less than the distance between Town B and Town A?

[rewboss]

1. You can add the word "to", and it might make it very slightly clearer.

2. Yes.