He approaches his schoolwork a little less industriously

Question

He approaches his schoolwork  a little less industriously than his brother does .

B) little less industriously than his brother
C) little less industriously than his brother is doing
D) a little less industriously than his brother is doing
E) a little less industriously than his brother has done

christoph · Answer

A)...compares one action to another action...simple past is needed "approaches" and "does"...

vivek123 · Answer

Can anybody explain

 a little less  &  little less  usage?

laxieqv · Answer

a straight A.

vivek> Let me tell you the difference between "little" and "a little" in common, then you can induce how they are different in this SC. 
First of all, "few" versus "little"
"few" is for countable nouns , whereas "little" is for uncountable nouns.

"few" = "little" = not many/ much ........at all

"a few"=" a little" = several/some

vivek123 · Answer

Thank you very much laxieqv

automan · Answer

C, D and E are wrong because parallelism is not kept. We want to compare how "he does his approach" with how "his brother does so". B is wrong because we compare "his schoolwork" with "his brother". The best asnwer is A.

taquanghai · Answer

One more A. Good explanation, guys.

ps_dahiya · Answer

OA is A.

ps_dahiya · Answer

lax, I would like to add something: "a little" and "little" AND "few" and "a few" This is from link https://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar ... miners.htm There is an important difference between "a little" and "little" (used with non-count words) and between "a few" and "few" (used with count words). If I say that Tashonda has a little experience in management that means that although Tashonda is no great expert she does have some experience and that experience might well be enough for our purposes. If I say that Tashonda has little experience in management that means that she doesn't have enough experience. If I say that Charlie owns a few books on Latin American literature that means that he has some some books â€” not a lot of books, but probably enough for our purposes. If I say that Charlie owns few books on Latin American literature, that means he doesn't have enough for our purposes and we'd better go to the library. "few" and "less" about "few". Yes this is for countable nouns but "less" is always used when referring to statistical or numerical expression, irrespective of countable or non-countable. e.g. It's less than twenty miles to Dallas. We spent less than forty dollars on our trip. You may want to check this at following link: https://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar ... s.htm#less

He approaches his schoolwork a little less industriously

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