RohitSaluja
anshul1208
Because the collagen fibers in skin line up in the direction of tension, surgical cuts made along these so-called Langer’s lines sever fewer fibers and is less likely to leave an unsightly scar.
(A) Because the collagen fibers in skin line up in the direction of tension, surgical cuts made along these so-called Langer’s lines sever fewer
(B) Because the collagen fibers in skin line up in the direction of tension, a surgical cut having been made along these so-called Langer’s lines severs less
(C) Because the collagen fibers in skin line up in the direction of tension, a surgical cut made along these so-called Langer’s lines severs fewer
(D) With the collagen fibers in skin lining up in the direction of tension, surgical cuts made along these so-called Langer’s lines sever less
(E) With the collagen fibers in skin lining up in the direction of tension, a surgical cut made along these so-called Langer’s lines sever fewer
Hi
VeritasKarishma AndrewN Hope you are doing well!
I have a question here related to option B and C. Fortunately we have
'having been made' in option B that helped me eliminate it and the decision point for me was not less/fewer, but if that would have been the only case how would we know that fibers are something that can be countable? Given the context of the sentence, it seems like it is talking about some fiber in skins now if you ask me whether the number of veins in my body are countable or not I wouldn't be sure

. So can you please provide some guidance? Appreciate your time and response.
Hello
RohitSaluja,
We hope this finds you well.
Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubt.
Differentiating between countable and uncountable nouns requires understanding the meaning conveyed by the nouns in the given context. One good way to differentiate between them is to understand that a noun is countable if it refers to something that exists as a
discreet entity, an individual thing. In the examples you gave, we can tell that there are multiple, individual collagen fibers and blood vessels; these elements may be linked together, but they still exist as separate things, meaning they can be quantified. This principle applies to abstract nouns as well; for example, "ambitions" - an ambition, or a "goal", is not a physical thing, but multiple ambitions can exist separate from one another. Consider this sentence - "John had two ambitions: securing an MBA and buying a home." Here, "John" is said to have two separate, individual ambitions or goals, so "ambitions" is countable.
Conversely, a noun is uncountable if it does not refer to something that can be said to exist as an individual thing, since this means that the thing, by its nature, cannot exist in multiple, cannot be subdivided, and thus cannot be quantified. Abstract concepts are typically uncountable; for example, "happiness" - there is no such thing as "a happiness" or "two happiness", as the word refers to a conceptual idea. Another common type of uncountable noun, probably the most common on GMAT, is material nouns. Material nouns are those that refer to substances, such as "water", "iron", "milk", "sugar", etc. These are uncountable, as they refer to the general concept of the material rather than to an individual piece or unit of it. In the sentence "The gate is made of iron.", "iron" refers to iron
in general rather than to an individual piece of iron.
Please note that uncountable nouns can be broken into countable versions. "ambition" refers to a feeling of wanting to do something and, like "happiness", is an abstract, uncountable noun. However, as seen above, "ambitions" is a countable noun that refers to individual things that one wants to do. Similarly, material nouns can be made countable, if they are broken into
quantifiable elements. Consider the sentences - "The gate is made of stone." and "The gate is made of stones."; the first refers to
stone in general, and the second refers to
individual pieces of stone. Another example is "water" and "buckets of water" or "liters of water"; the first refers to water as a
general substance, and the latter two refer to discreet, countable
units of water.
Put simply, whether a noun is countable or uncountable does not depend on whether it can physically be counted. Rather, this factor is determined by whether the noun exists in a form that can
conceptually or
theoretically be quantified.
We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team