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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 28 Jan 2021, 00:15
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jabhatta2
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GMATNinja DmitryFarber GMATNinjaTwo VeritasKarishma -- i picked option C because i thought perhaps ellipsis is going on with option C ?

Option C) less than (THAT OF) 1978

The antecedent of "THAT" would be Rice production (Rice production is singular)

That's why i chose C

Thoughts on where I am wrong ?

You need to compare production in 1979 (41 mn tonnes) to production in 1978.

Option (C) compares production in 1979 to 1978 which doesn't make sense.

Something like this will work:
"In 1979 ... 41 mn tonnes, nearly 25% less than (that in) 1978"
"That" here takes the place of "India's rice production".

Option (B) correctly states:
"In 1979 ... 41 mn tonnes, nearly 25 percent less than the 1978 harvest.

Here "the 1978 harvest" would stand for "around 55 mn tonnes".

Hi VeritasKarishma - Thank you for your response.

Per your highlight in yellow just above -- Just wondering, how are you so sure in option C that (that in) or (that of) is not ellipsed from option C ?

It certainly is possible that option C has verbs / pronouns that don't have to repeat itself and thus are ellipsed (Dropped)

If option C has (that in) or (that of) 1978 -- that would make option C accurate.

Thoughts ?

Thank you so much
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While comparing, you need to specifically mention the two things that are being compared or you need to give a placeholder such as "that" in the second case. You cannot assume that it has been left out for brevity.

The following are correct:
In 1979, the production was less than the production in 1978.
In 1979, the production was less than that in 1978.
In 1979, the production was less than the 1978 harvest. (Harvest is another name for production)

In each case you are comparing production 1979 to production in 1978.

But
In 1979, the production was less than 1978. - Incorrect.
You cannot compare production with 1978.
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 03 Aug 2021, 15:54
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Hi DmitryFarber : in option A - Wanted to see what I would get if I replace "Those" with an antecedent

option A) In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than tons of the 1978 harvest

This is wrong because the expression "tons of the 1978 harvest" does not make sense. Reason : the expression can be
-- ..... 25 % percent less than 55 millions tons of the 1978 harvest
-- ..... 25 % percent less than 53 millons tons of the 1978 harvest

-- ..... 25 % percent less than tons of the 1978 harvest : does not make sense without an accompanying number of how many millions of tons.

Just wondering what your thoughts were on this analysis or completely off ?
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 23 Jan 2022, 18:57
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than those of the 1978 harvest.

(A) less than those of the 1978 harvest

(B) less than the 1978 harvest

(C) less than 1978

(D) fewer than 1978

(E) fewer than that of India's 1978 harvest
Show more

Not a very straightforward sentence. Confusion is majorly between A and B:

(A) less than those of the 1978 harvest
'those of' is not clear. Can't say 'those of' is for 'rice production' as it is singular.

(B) less than the 1978 harvest
Correct comparison of 'rice production' to the '1978 harvest'
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 23 Jan 2022, 19:18
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One thing to consider when seeing THAT and THOSE in questions is like this is what those words are actually 'replicating' and to re-read the sentence to see if it makes sense.
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 28 Dec 2022, 02:26
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This is one of my least-favorite GMAT comparison questions ever… and that’s why we covered it on YouTube, in our 2nd webinar on comparisons. (Part I of that webinar can be found here.)

Quote:
In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than those of the 1978 harvest.

(A) less than those of the 1978 harvest
The thing that jumps out at me here is the word “those.” It’s a plural pronoun, and the only reasonable plural referent is “tons.” So we’d have “…lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than the tons of the 1978 harvest."

Wait.. what? “The tons of the 1978 harvest”?? That makes no sense. The tons of rice ARE the harvest, so why the heck would we ever say “the tons of the harvest”?

So (A) is out.

Quote:
(B) less than the 1978 harvest
I’ll be honest: I don’t totally love this one, but I also can’t figure out why it’s definitely wrong. (And you’re always looking for answer choices that contain DEFINITE errors; see our beginner’s guide to SC for more on that.)

Here’s the heart of the comparison in (B): “…lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than the 1978 harvest.” This directly compares 41 million tons – which is exactly the same thing as the 1979 harvest – to the 1978 harvest. Fair enough, I guess. I suppose this would “feel” more obviously correct if the phrase compared “the 1979 harvest” directly to “the 1978 harvest”, but there’s nothing wrong with (B) in its current form. We’re still logically comparing an entire harvest (“41 million tons”) to another entire harvest.

I guess we can keep (B).

Quote:
(C) less than 1978
This one is very definitely wrong. It’s saying that the 1979 rice production of 41 million tons is less than the year 1978. We can’t logically compare the tons of rice to a year. (C) is out.

Quote:
(D) fewer than 1978
(D) has exactly the same problem as (C). The distinction between “less” and “fewer” means nothing to us here, since the comparison is completely illogical. So (D) is gone, too.

Quote:
(E) fewer than that of India's 1978 harvest
The pronoun “that” jumps out at me again here. It’s a singular pronoun, so it must refer to… “rice production”, I guess? But that makes no sense, since we’d have “fewer than the rice production of India’s 1978 harvest.” Huh? The “production of the harvest”? That’s nonsense: the harvest IS the production.

So (E) is out. (B) isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we can do.
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it has to be less bc we are talking about percentage, it cannot be fewer. Or am I wrong?
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 28 Dec 2022, 06:26
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egmat
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what is wrong with answer choice E


Hello Saumya2403,

I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)

There are the following two errors in Choice E:

1. Using fewer to refer to rice production is incorrect. Less should be used to refer to quantities.

2. Since the pronoun that refers back to India’s rice production, use of India’s is redundant here.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Hi egmat - not sure I agree on the yellow.

In (E) -- the pronoun THAT only refers to Rice production. The pronoun THAT DOES NOT refer to India's rice production.

Simple example -

#1) Jose’s room is very neat. His mother shows it off to all the guests.
Quote:


His = Jose
It = room

It DOES NOT refer to Jose's room but Room only.
Show more

#2) India's rice production is lower than THAT of Brazil

Quote:

THAT = Rice production only

THAT DOES NOT EQUAL == India's Rice Production
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 28 Dec 2022, 15:49
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jabhatta2
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what is wrong with answer choice E


Hello Saumya2403,

I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)

There are the following two errors in Choice E:

1. Using fewer to refer to rice production is incorrect. Less should be used to refer to quantities.

2. Since the pronoun that refers back to India’s rice production, use of India’s is redundant here.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha


Hi egmat - not sure I agree on the yellow.

In (E) -- the pronoun THAT only refers to Rice production. The pronoun THAT DOES NOT refer to India's rice production.

Simple example -

#1) Jose’s room is very neat. His mother shows it off to all the guests.
Quote:


His = Jose
It = room

It DOES NOT refer to Jose's room but Room only.

#2) India's rice production is lower than THAT of Brazil

Quote:

THAT = Rice production only

THAT DOES NOT EQUAL == India's Rice Production
Show more


Hello jabhatta2,

Well, I agree that "that" refers to "rice production". Choice E is erroneous for using two possessives - that of India's 1978 harvest". Use of the "that of" is incorrect because replacing it with "rice production" will make the choice illogical.

Now, in the "Jose's room" example sentence, the pronoun "it" does refer to "Jose's room". Why? Because a pronoun is a replacement for a noun used earlier in the sentence. The pronoun refers to the same noun as a replacement. So, "it" takes the modifiers connected with "room" and stands for "Jose's room". You can try the following official sentence to see this usage: https://gmatclub.com/forum/avalanches-at-rogers-pass-in-glacier-national-park-killed-more-than-305826.html


Hope this helps. :)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 28 Dec 2022, 15:57
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egmat
Well, I agree that "that" refers to "rice production". Choice E is erroneous for using two possessives - that of India's 1978 harvest". Use of the "that of" is incorrect because replacing it with "rice production" will make the choice illogical.

Now, in the "Jose's room" example sentence, the pronoun "it" does refer to "Jose's room". Why? Because a pronoun is a replacement for a noun used earlier in the sentence. The pronoun refers to the same noun as a replacement. So, "it" takes the modifiers connected with "room" and stands for "Jose's room". You can try the following official sentence to see this usage: https://gmatclub.com/forum/avalanches-at-rogers-pass-in-glacier-national-park-killed-more-than-305826.html


Hope this helps. :)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Thank you egmat - this is my take-away

'THAT' will only take the noun 'rice production' [THAT/THOSE/THEIR will not take the adjectives]

HOWEVER

Pronoun 'IT/THEY / THEM' are different.

Pronoun 'IT/THEY/THEM' will take the antecedent + the antecedent's adjectives. These pronouns pick up BOTH the adjective and the noun.
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 24 Jun 2023, 05:48
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[quote="DmitryFarber"]We only want to use "that of" or "those of" if we are comparing something *belonging* to something else:

The design of the new tablet is similar to that of its predecessor. (The design of one is similar to the design of the other.)
Jack wanted clothes similar to those of his friends. (He wants his clothes to be similar to his friends' clothes.)

In the above examples, it would be a big problem to get rid of the relative pronoun:

The design of the new tablet is similar to its predecessor. (The design is similar to the predecessor?)
Jack wanted clothes similar to his friends. (He wants his clothes to be similar to his friends?)

In B, we are correctly comparing the production in 1979 to the harvest in 1978. If we go with gmatfighter12's proposed phrasing, "less than that of," we have to ask what "that" stands for. If we say "less than that of the 1978 harvest," then "that" doesn't seem to stand for anything. If we say "less than that of 1978," the antecedent for "that" isn't entirely clear, although "production" seems like the most reasonable choice. E would then be clearer than the other wrong answer choices, but still not as clear as B.



Hi ,
I have just one confusion, if the sentence would be as below"

In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, which is nearly 25 percent less than those of the 1978 harvest.

Then 'fewer' would be the best option to use?
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 24 Jun 2023, 10:38
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https://gmatclub.com/forum/fewer-vs-less-180587.html

This may help.

Consider checking out the Sumatran rhinos question as well.
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 11 Aug 2023, 23:24
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GMATNinja
This is one of my least-favorite GMAT comparison questions ever… and that’s why we covered it on YouTube, in our 2nd webinar on comparisons. (Part I of that webinar can be found here.)

Quote:
In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than those of the 1978 harvest.

(A) less than those of the 1978 harvest
The thing that jumps out at me here is the word “those.” It’s a plural pronoun, and the only reasonable plural referent is “tons.” So we’d have “…lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than the tons of the 1978 harvest."

Wait.. what? “The tons of the 1978 harvest”?? That makes no sense. The tons of rice ARE the harvest, so why the heck would we ever say “the tons of the harvest”?

So (A) is out.

Quote:
(B) less than the 1978 harvest
I’ll be honest: I don’t totally love this one, but I also can’t figure out why it’s definitely wrong. (And you’re always looking for answer choices that contain DEFINITE errors; see our beginner’s guide to SC for more on that.)

Here’s the heart of the comparison in (B): “…lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than the 1978 harvest.” This directly compares 41 million tons – which is exactly the same thing as the 1979 harvest – to the 1978 harvest. Fair enough, I guess. I suppose this would “feel” more obviously correct if the phrase compared “the 1979 harvest” directly to “the 1978 harvest”, but there’s nothing wrong with (B) in its current form. We’re still logically comparing an entire harvest (“41 million tons”) to another entire harvest.

I guess we can keep (B).

Quote:
(C) less than 1978
This one is very definitely wrong. It’s saying that the 1979 rice production of 41 million tons is less than the year 1978. We can’t logically compare the tons of rice to a year. (C) is out.

Quote:
(D) fewer than 1978
(D) has exactly the same problem as (C). The distinction between “less” and “fewer” means nothing to us here, since the comparison is completely illogical. So (D) is gone, too.

Quote:
(E) fewer than that of India's 1978 harvest
The pronoun “that” jumps out at me again here. It’s a singular pronoun, so it must refer to… “rice production”, I guess? But that makes no sense, since we’d have “fewer than the rice production of India’s 1978 harvest.” Huh? The “production of the harvest”? That’s nonsense: the harvest IS the production.

So (E) is out. (B) isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we can do.
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Hi GMATNinja

I am having hard time choosing (B) over (C). Below is my understanding(may be pretty stupid). kindly address the GAP:

(B) less than the 1978 harvest
we are comparing 1979-rice production with 1978-harvest. Comparison should be between Rice to Rice, no?
harvest may have several other elements.

(E) fewer than that of India's 1978 harvest
here ''that'' seems to refer to rice production.
Comparison elements: Rice production-1979 || Rice production out of 1978- total harvest.
So the comparison seems okay.

Also in (E), to me, ''fewer'' sounds okay.

Thanks
Ashutosh
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In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 milli 18 Aug 2023, 11:54
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ashutosh_73
Hi GMATNinja

I am having hard time choosing (B) over (C). Below is my understanding(may be pretty stupid). kindly address the GAP:

(B) less than the 1978 harvest

we are comparing 1979-rice production with 1978-harvest. Comparison should be between Rice to Rice, no?

harvest may have several other elements.

(E) fewer than that of India's 1978 harvest

here ''that'' seems to refer to rice production.

Comparison elements: Rice production-1979 || Rice production out of 1978- total harvest.

So the comparison seems okay.

Also in (E), to me, ''fewer'' sounds okay.

Thanks

Ashutosh
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In this context, "harvest" just means the amount of rice gathered or produced in a particular year. In 1979, that amount was 41 million tons, and choice (B) compares that amount to the 1978 amount.

As discussed in our original explanation, the comparison might “feel” more obviously correct if the sentence compared “the 1979 harvest” directly to “the 1978 harvest”, but in this context "harvest" and "production" are used somewhat interchangeably. More importantly, "harvest" and "production" are certainly comparable things given the context, so the comparison in (B) is fine.

Choice (E) compares the 1979 rice production to the rice production of India's 1978 harvest -- so we're comparing production to production. Fine, but rice production isn't a discrete, countable thing. You could have 41 million tons, 41.1 million tons, 41.12398742{...} million tons, and so on. If (E) compared the number of tons produced in 1979 to the number of tons produced in 1978, "fewer" might be okay. But for a non-discrete quantity like production, "less" makes more sense. (For more on countable vs. non-countable modifiers, this crusty old live video or this newer one might help a bit.)

More importantly, "rice production of India's 1978 harvest" doesn't work. You could say that India produced rice, but the harvest itself (the rice gathered) doesn't produce rice.

You could also use the harvested rice to produce something else (biofuel or overpriced cosmetics, for example). But (E) implies that the harvested rice is used to produce rice, and that doesn't work.

The comparison in (B) makes more sense, so that's the better option.

I hope that helps!
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