darn wrote:
Hi
mikemcgarry /
GMATNinjaI went through the explanation that Kaplan provided, but I was not satisfied with their explanation that for countable quantities 'as many as' is preferred.
In Option C if instead of equal we had equivalent, would it still be wrong ?
It would be great if you could you please let me know what your views are on this question and if I should just remember this rule for future questions as well.
Dear
darn,
I'm happy to respond.
To be honest, I don't have the highest opinion of this question.
Here's the text again:
According to a study by a prominent think tank, the defense budget of Country X might, in five years time, fund more than 70 billion dollars annually for research and development, equivalent to private grants.
A. equivalent to private grants
B. equivalent to that which is provided by private grants
C. equal to what private grants provide
D. as much as private grants
E. as many as private grants provideI would say that (B) is grammatically correct, although admitted a bit long and awkward. I think (C) is fine as is, and arguably (D) is OK, though a bit casual. I think (E) is embarrassingly wrong. Was this question written by a native speaker?
I agree with you about (E). Yes, we use "
many" for countable items, but for units (dollar, hours, miles . . ) it's implicitly understood that we are talking about the thing measured (how much money, how much time, how much distance . . .) so we would use "
much" and not "
many" for comparison. What would be perfect is:
(E')
as much as private grants providebut that's not even an option in this question.
This is a very poorly written question, not approximating the level of the GMAT SC at all. Your best option for preparation is to steer clear of low quality questions.
Here's a high quality question:
Comparing tensile strengthDoes all this make sense?
Mike