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17 Apr 2021, 23:30
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A
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
25%
(medium)
Question Stats:
71% (01:11) correct
29%
(01:18)
wrong
based on 254
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
A study has found that certain types of bacteria, called hypermutators, mutate faster and, thus, have greater relative fitness than bacteria that mutate at a slower rate.
A) greater relative fitness than bacteria that mutate
B) as much relative fitness than do bacteria that mutate
C) more relative fitness than bacteria mutating
D) more relative fitness as bacteria that mutate
E) greater relative fitness as bacteria that mutate
17 Apr 2021, 23:33
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
OVERVIEW
• USING WORDS OF COMPARISON
If two unequal or dissimilar things are being compared, you are likely to see comparison words such as greater, more, less, smaller, bigger, fewer, and higher.
→ Without exception in this context, you need THAN. You never use AS with these words.
X is greater than Y.
ABC contains more candy than PQR.
Big Bank's interest rate is higher than that of Small Bank.
If two equal or similar things are being compared, and you see one as, look for another as. The word as is never paired with than.
→ Without exception in this context, you need AS. . .AS. In a comparison, you never use than with as.
I am as tall as he.
Oak tree shoots grow as quickly as weeds do.
• MORE v GREATER
→ More can be used to talk about countable nouns.
She bought more apples than she needed. (Apples are countable.)
→ More can be used with many uncountable nouns.
He asked for more water. (Water is not countable.)
A suit made by hand costs more than a suit off the rack.
→ If the noun is itself a number (a measurement, a rate, percent), use greater, not more.
The volume of the glass aquarium is greater than the volume of the plastic aquarium.
Population growth was greater in the early twentieth century than in the later decades of the twentieth century.
This question mentions a rate.
Some bacteria mutate faster than others do.
In this context, "fitness" means "the rate at which bacteria mutate." That is, in this context, fitness is a rate.
A rate is itself a number and thus is modified by greater, not more.
THE PROMPT
Hypermutators mutate at a faster rate than regular bacteria mutate.
Hypermutators are thus better fit to survive—in other words, the fitness (mutation rate) of hypermutators is greater than the fitness of "regular" bacteria.
THE OPTIONS
→ greater relative fitness correctly refers to the difference between rate at which the hypermutator bacteria mutate and the rate at which regular bacteria mutate
→ greater is correctly paired with than
Correct: AS . . . AS
Wrong: AS . . . than
ELIMINATE B
→ Relative fitness refers to the relative rates of mutation of regular and hypermutator bacteria.
A rate is itself a number.
Nouns that themselves are numbers take greater, not more. (See the Overview.)
We modify a rate with greater, not more.
• that mutate (in options A, B, C, and D) is stronger than mutating because the former highlights a defining feature of a type of bacteria.
→ often, there is little difference in meaning between a relative clause (that mutate) and a participle (mutating).
In fact, we can often "reduce" relative clauses to a participle.
In this case, the two are not quite interchangeable and that mutate is better than mutating.
→ This sentence centers on the difference between essential characteristics of hypermutator bacteria and regular bacteria.
If we read . . . than bacteria mutating at a slower rate, we do not know whether this slower rate of mutation is an essential characteristic of the bacteria or just something that the bacteria are doing at the time.
Yes, it is fairly clear from context that this slower rate of mutation is an essential characteristic of the bacteria that are not hypermutators.
But using that mutate tells us for certain that these "regular" bacteria always mutate at a slower rate than that of hypermutator bacteria.
I would use this face-off in a tiebreaker or if I were not sure about more/greater.
Optimally, we would eliminate Option C because more should be greater.
ELIMINATE C
See the explanation beneath option C.
• IF "more" were correct (and it is not), we would need a THAN.
Correct: More . . . than
Wrong: More . . . as
ELIMINATE D
Correct: Greater . . . than
Wrong: Greater . . . as
ELIMINATE E
Notes -- recap
Greater . . . THAN
More . . . THAN
AS . . . AS
Use "greater than" for nouns that are themselves numbers (distance, area, rate, percent).
The answer is A.
COMMENTS
keyuwang , welcome to SC Butler.
This question is slippery.
If you learn the first three lines of "Notes," above, you can eliminate three answers: B, D, and E.
Another good lesson from this question is that the sentence itself tells us that fitness is a rate.
Even if you cannot remember the rule, try to think of a sentence that might help:
A train travels at more speed than a horse does.
A train travels at greater speed than a horse does.
As far as I can tell from time stamps, everyone posted before the OA was revealed.
Correct answers with explanations get kudos.
Sumi1010 , I am bumping you to Best Community Reply.
Stay safe, everyone.
Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1)
OVERVIEW
• USING WORDS OF COMPARISON
If two unequal or dissimilar things are being compared, you are likely to see comparison words such as greater, more, less, smaller, bigger, fewer, and higher.
→ Without exception in this context, you need THAN. You never use AS with these words.
X is greater than Y.
ABC contains more candy than PQR.
Big Bank's interest rate is higher than that of Small Bank.
If two equal or similar things are being compared, and you see one as, look for another as. The word as is never paired with than.
→ Without exception in this context, you need AS. . .AS. In a comparison, you never use than with as.
I am as tall as he.
Oak tree shoots grow as quickly as weeds do.
• MORE v GREATER
→ More can be used to talk about countable nouns.
She bought more apples than she needed. (Apples are countable.)
→ More can be used with many uncountable nouns.
He asked for more water. (Water is not countable.)
A suit made by hand costs more than a suit off the rack.
→ If the noun is itself a number (a measurement, a rate, percent), use greater, not more.
The volume of the glass aquarium is greater than the volume of the plastic aquarium.
Population growth was greater in the early twentieth century than in the later decades of the twentieth century.
This question mentions a rate.
Some bacteria mutate faster than others do.
In this context, "fitness" means "the rate at which bacteria mutate." That is, in this context, fitness is a rate.
A rate is itself a number and thus is modified by greater, not more.
THE PROMPT
Quote:
The sentence is comparing the rates of mutation of two different kinds of bacteria.
Hypermutators mutate at a faster rate than regular bacteria mutate.
Hypermutators are thus better fit to survive—in other words, the fitness (mutation rate) of hypermutators is greater than the fitness of "regular" bacteria.
THE OPTIONS
Quote:
• I do not see any errors
→ greater relative fitness correctly refers to the difference between rate at which the hypermutator bacteria mutate and the rate at which regular bacteria mutate
→ greater is correctly paired with than
Quote:
• We need another AS.
Correct: AS . . . AS
Wrong: AS . . . than
ELIMINATE B
Quote:
• We need greater relative fitness.
→ Relative fitness refers to the relative rates of mutation of regular and hypermutator bacteria.
A rate is itself a number.
Nouns that themselves are numbers take greater, not more. (See the Overview.)
We modify a rate with greater, not more.
• that mutate (in options A, B, C, and D) is stronger than mutating because the former highlights a defining feature of a type of bacteria.
→ often, there is little difference in meaning between a relative clause (that mutate) and a participle (mutating).
In fact, we can often "reduce" relative clauses to a participle.
In this case, the two are not quite interchangeable and that mutate is better than mutating.
→ This sentence centers on the difference between essential characteristics of hypermutator bacteria and regular bacteria.
If we read . . . than bacteria mutating at a slower rate, we do not know whether this slower rate of mutation is an essential characteristic of the bacteria or just something that the bacteria are doing at the time.
Yes, it is fairly clear from context that this slower rate of mutation is an essential characteristic of the bacteria that are not hypermutators.
But using that mutate tells us for certain that these "regular" bacteria always mutate at a slower rate than that of hypermutator bacteria.
I would use this face-off in a tiebreaker or if I were not sure about more/greater.
Optimally, we would eliminate Option C because more should be greater.
ELIMINATE C
Quote:
• We need greater relative fitness; more relative fitness is wrong.
See the explanation beneath option C.
• IF "more" were correct (and it is not), we would need a THAN.
Correct: More . . . than
Wrong: More . . . as
ELIMINATE D
Quote:
• We need a THAN.
Correct: Greater . . . than
Wrong: Greater . . . as
ELIMINATE E
Notes -- recap
Greater . . . THAN
More . . . THAN
AS . . . AS
Use "greater than" for nouns that are themselves numbers (distance, area, rate, percent).
The answer is A.
COMMENTS
keyuwang , welcome to SC Butler.
This question is slippery.
If you learn the first three lines of "Notes," above, you can eliminate three answers: B, D, and E.
Another good lesson from this question is that the sentence itself tells us that fitness is a rate.
Even if you cannot remember the rule, try to think of a sentence that might help:
A train travels at more speed than a horse does.
A train travels at greater speed than a horse does.
As far as I can tell from time stamps, everyone posted before the OA was revealed.
Correct answers with explanations get kudos.
Sumi1010 , I am bumping you to Best Community Reply.
Stay safe, everyone.
19 Apr 2021, 00:56
Kudos
Bookmarks
The original sentence is :
A study has found that
certain types of bacteria, called hypermutators,
mutate faster and, thus, have greater relative fitness than
bacteria that mutate at a slower rate.
We can reduce the sentence to :
Certain types of bacteria mutate faster and, thus, have greater relative fitness than bacteria that mutate at a slower rate.
Several points to be noted:
1. The two sets of bacteria (in bold) must be comparable i.e. Certain types of bacteria || bacteria that mutate at a slower rate.
2. GREATER and MORE should be followed by THAN.
3. RATE can be greater . Rate can't be More.
4. In the sentence
X mutates faster than Y
-- We are trying to compare the actions of X and Y i.e. X mutates faster than Y does.
In case we write -
X mutates faster than Y mutating at slower rate...
-- We are trying to compare X with an specific set of Y (modified by- mutating at slower rate).
Grammatically, it's not wrong.
But, are we comparing X (that does mutation at faster rate - a behaviour and hence Simple tense ) to Y(mutating - a practice currently going on but may not be a behaviour)?
Not correct.
Now, the choices :
A) greater relative fitness than bacteria that mutate
Correct.
B) as much relative fitness than do bacteria that mutate
AS MUCH should be followed by AS
C) more relative fitness than bacteria mutating
We are not comparing the types of bacteria (that domutation at faster rate - a behaviour and hence Simple tense ) to the bacteria( mutating - a practice currently going on but may not be a behaviour).
D) more relative fitness as bacteria that mutate
MORE should be followed by THAN.
E) greater relative fitness as bacteria that mutate
GREATER should be followed by THAN.
IMO A
A study has found that
certain types of bacteria, called hypermutators,
mutate faster and, thus, have greater relative fitness than
bacteria that mutate at a slower rate.
We can reduce the sentence to :
Certain types of bacteria mutate faster and, thus, have greater relative fitness than bacteria that mutate at a slower rate.
Several points to be noted:
1. The two sets of bacteria (in bold) must be comparable i.e. Certain types of bacteria || bacteria that mutate at a slower rate.
2. GREATER and MORE should be followed by THAN.
3. RATE can be greater . Rate can't be More.
4. In the sentence
X mutates faster than Y
-- We are trying to compare the actions of X and Y i.e. X mutates faster than Y does.
In case we write -
X mutates faster than Y mutating at slower rate...
-- We are trying to compare X with an specific set of Y (modified by- mutating at slower rate).
Grammatically, it's not wrong.
But, are we comparing X (that does mutation at faster rate - a behaviour and hence Simple tense ) to Y(mutating - a practice currently going on but may not be a behaviour)?
Not correct.
Now, the choices :
A) greater relative fitness than bacteria that mutate
Correct.
B) as much relative fitness than do bacteria that mutate
AS MUCH should be followed by AS
C) more relative fitness than bacteria mutating
We are not comparing the types of bacteria (that domutation at faster rate - a behaviour and hence Simple tense ) to the bacteria( mutating - a practice currently going on but may not be a behaviour).
D) more relative fitness as bacteria that mutate
MORE should be followed by THAN.
E) greater relative fitness as bacteria that mutate
GREATER should be followed by THAN.
IMO A
