I think the text per se is good enough. Here the total population refers the quantum of two hundred and as such the non- countable comparative degree adjective ‘less’ should be used. We shouldn’t be tempted to think that two hundred is a number which can be counted as one and two hundred etc and entails fewer or lower.

Of course we must use the countable adjective fewer for the breeder females.

I feel there is no difference between leas and lesser. Both are useable and interchangeable. But ‘less’ is more often used than ‘lesser’.

So we can limit to Choice A and C and further narrow down to A because it is more often used
_________________

” I truly believe in online learning, I have been a student in both an Ivy League school (brick and mortar) and in an online setting and I have learned 1,000 times more in an online setting. You do not have anyone there lecturing you and then you do the work, online you are made to do it all yourself. Amazing how different the results are. - Heather(a student)”

Alicia Helle, an online student at the UW, "Obtaining my degree online has been a blessing. With two small children, I am able to work when it is convenient for my family and me. I have nothing but positive comments and experiences from my time at UW-Stout.”

Find out what's new at GMAT Club - latest features and updates

Can you please tell us which is correct? Of less than Choice A or lesser than (Choice C).

Coming back to your example of the word ‘like’, the use of the same word in two different meanings is not equal to the use of two different words in the same meaning, which is what the text is about. Can you please give some more examples in which we have to choose between two altogether different words but with the same meaning such as equal and equalant etc.

I also feel that it is not fair to compare a word in spoken form with its written form.
_________________

” I truly believe in online learning, I have been a student in both an Ivy League school (brick and mortar) and in an online setting and I have learned 1,000 times more in an online setting. You do not have anyone there lecturing you and then you do the work, online you are made to do it all yourself. Amazing how different the results are. - Heather(a student)”

Alicia Helle, an online student at the UW, "Obtaining my degree online has been a blessing. With two small children, I am able to work when it is convenient for my family and me. I have nothing but positive comments and experiences from my time at UW-Stout.”

Find out what's new at GMAT Club - latest features and updates

i opted C not because of countable and non countable but because of parallelism .... lesser... fewer ...
_________________

I'm the Dumbest of All !!

ha ha..got answer for all of us.
we know why A and C are the contenders.
We must have read this, Positive/Comparative/Superlative - Little/less/least.

the sentence is already in the comparative form "of less"....using "lesser" making the context less twice is incorrect.
So A is the best.

daagh,

I completely understand what you're saying and didn't intend for this to be a purely theoretical discussion of grammar. That said, I have spent a lot of time taking, teaching, and reviewing the GMAT and I believe that you need to understand certain fundamental grammatical concepts to do well on SC. Although there are rules that get shared on many forums ("Being is always wrong" / "The shortest answer is always right" / etc.) the reality is that the only real hard and fast rule on SC is that "The right answer must be grammatically correct." Although students can probably increase their scores to a certain point using shortcuts, most of the comments I see on this forum are from students who say their goal scores are 650-750. For better or for worse, that's why I often post about the grammar behind SC questions.

Brett
_________________

Brett Beach-Kimball | Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Manhattan GMAT Discount | Manhattan GMAT Reviews