I am responding to a pm from
ermayank14. First of all, I applaud everything Zeke said in the GMAT Pill response above.
ermayank14 wrote:
I have four questions regarding more vs greater issue and comparision:
1. For these two sentences:
Holland has more tulips than does any other country in Western Europe.
The US State of Georgia has more land than does the state of Pennsylvania.
can we write
Holland has more tulips than any other country in Western Europe.(without does)
The US State of Georgia has more land than the state of Pennsylvania.(without does)
My take is that we can use but if both the options are present which one is better. Please suggest.
The primary issue concerning whether to include or omit the verb after the word "
than" is whether the statement without the verb is
ambiguous. Of course, the GMAT HATES ambiguity in the SC. For example
Rachel likes cats more than Mike.
Does this compare how much Rachel likes cats to how much Mike likes cats? Or, does it compare how much Rachel likes cats to how much Rachel likes Mike? This sentence is typical for the ambiguity that can arise --- if we have "
than [noun]", is it clear whether than noun is a
subject or an
object of the verb? I would say, in both of these sentences, it's perfectly clear from context that "
any other country in Western Europe" and "
the state of Pennsylvania" function as subjects --- reading them as objects just doesn't make sense. Therefore, the verb "
does" is not strictly necessary, although there is absolutely nothing wrong about adding it for clarity.
ermayank14 wrote:
2 For the sentence below:
In a stunning victory that has never been equaled in this county’s history, Ms. Pankhurst captured more than 73% of the the ballots, in what one commentator called a “thunderous mandate."
Should not greater than come instead of more than as 73 is a percentage or we are referring to ballots which is actually not a number or indeed ballot is a number. Please suggest.
I inserted a preposition which I believe improves that sentence. For percents, if we are talking about "percent of [uncountable items]" (
20% of the atmosphere), then we would use "
more/less", precisely as we would use with an uncountable noun (
more or less of the atmosphere). BUT, if we are talking about "percent of [countable items]" (
40% of the cars on the road), then we would use "
more/fewer", precisely as we would use with an countable noun (
more or [color=#0000ff]fewer cars on the road[/color]).
ermayank14 wrote:
3 In following sentences
It costs more to go to the ballgame than to go to the opera
The price of a trip to the ballgame is greater than the cost of a night at the opera.
Why cannot we use greater in the above sentence as costs is something that is numeric ? Please suggest.
When "
cost" is used a a noun, then we can use "
greater than" or "
less than" because it is a numeric noun. When "
cost" is used as a verb --- well, there's no such thing as a "numeric verb"!! --- verbs just take adverb modifiers, and "
more" and "
less" function as adverbs.
ermayank14 wrote:
4 Can you please elaborate the use of higher and lower. And the difference between higher and greater; and less and lower.
Between the above post and this post, does this answer all of your questions?
Mike