Poor weather in early 14th-century Europe created meager

well, can't you say 10 populations? is it considered wrong? when I typed populations into a spell checker it looked OK
Example: Many of the world's populations suffer from poor conditions

C - "resulting in mass starvation in some areas and the elimination of as much as".
Correct parallelism (underlined) and "elimination of as much as" is the correct idiom.

The discussion above about "population" is an interesting one. Consider the following:

"The population of Mexico is about 90 million." --> Here, "population" is singular.
"The populations of North and South Dakota are roughly equal." --> Here, "populations" is plural because you're referring to two separate populations.

In this case, we're referring to a single population - that of 14th century Europe.

Does that help for those of you wondering about the plural / singular population issue?

a. causing the result of mass starvation in some areas and the elimination as many as
causing the result - no way
percentage - much not many

b. causing the result of mass starvation in some areas and eliminating as much as
causing the result - no way

c. resulting in mass starvation in some areas and the elimination of as much as
looks good

d. and resulted in mass starvation in some areas and the elimination of as many as
we need "ing" modifier to show the result...
percentage - much not many

e. causing mass starvation in some areas and the elimination of as many as
percentage - much not many

C is the best.

Veritas Prep OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

There are two errors in the original sentence. First, the expression “causing the result of” is nonsensical; it is impossible for something “to cause the result of” something else. Either “an event causes an effect,” “an event results in an effect,” or “an effect is the result of an event.” Second, the expression “as many as” refers to a portion of the “population,” which is an uncountable noun (i.e., one cannot say “one population, two population”); hence, the correct expression here is “as much as” rather than “as many as.”

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) The expression “causing the result of” is nonsensical; it is impossible for something “to cause the result of” something else. This choice does correctly use "as much as" rather than “as many as” to refer to the unquantifiable noun "population."

(C) CORRECT. This choice correctly uses the expression “as much as” rather than “as many as” to refer to the uncountable noun “population.” In addition, this choice uses the grammatical form “Poor weather … created meager harvests resulting in X and Y” where the entire phrase beginning with “resulting” directly modifies “harvests,” and where X, “mass starvation … ,” and Y, “the elimination of … ” are parallel to each other in structure.

(D) The expression “as many as” refers to a portion of the “population,” which is an uncountable noun; hence, the correct expression here is “as much as” rather than “as many as.” In addition, the construction “Poor weather…created meager harvests… and resulted in mass starvation …” changes the meaning of the sentence slightly by asserting that the poor weather, rather than the meager harvests, was the direct cause of the starvation and the elimination of some of the population.

(E) The expression “as many as” refers to a portion of the “population,” which is an uncountable noun; hence, the correct expression here is “as much as” rather than “as many as.”

The used of "causing the result" is wrong, so eliminate (A) and (B), the used of "as many as" is incorrect since it is referring to percentage, should be as much as, hence, answer is (C)

egmat GMATNinja can u please explain Option C and E

Hello Manoj1998,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can resolve your doubt.

Option E and Option C both convey the intended meaning, but Option E incorrectly uses "many" to refer to the uncountable noun phrase "15 percent of the population"; for a noun phrase such as "15 percent of the population", the appropriate term is "much", as used by Option C.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

For C, is “Mass starvation” and “the elimination” parallel?

Posted from my mobile device

Hello Dufa,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

"mass starvation" and "the elimination" are indeed parallel, as both are noun phrases that can logically follow "resulting in".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Isn't population a countable noun?

how is population considered an uncountable noun?

I guess, the word "population" can be both a countable and uncountable noun, depending on the context.

When used as a countable noun, "population" refers to a specific group of people or animals within a particular area, such as "the population of New York City" or "the population of elephants in Africa."

When used as an uncountable noun, "population" generally refers to the entire group of people or animals in a particular area, without specifying a specific number or amount. For example, "the population of the world" or "the population of endangered species."

Here are some examples of using "population" as a countable noun and as an uncountable noun:

Countable noun:

• The population of the town is 10,000 people.
• The populations of Canada, the United States, and Mexico are all over 100 million.
• The world population has grown by several billion people in the last century.

In these examples, "population" is countable because it refers to a specific number of people in a particular place or group. It can be pluralized, and you can use numbers to quantify it.

Uncountable noun:

• The growth of population in the city is a major concern for urban planners.
• Overpopulation is a serious problem in many developing countries.
• The population of the world is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050.

In these examples, "population" is uncountable because it refers to a general concept, an abstract idea or a whole group that cannot be counted. You cannot pluralize it, and you cannot use a number to quantify it. Instead, you can use words like "growth," "density," or "size" to describe it.

In our case, you would use "as much as 15 percent of the population."

"Much" is used with uncountable nouns, and in this context, "population" refers to a single, unified group of people, so it should be treated as an uncountable noun.

Does this make sense?