Organizers claimed that the rally for public health care drew close to

Question

Organizers claimed that the rally for public health care drew close to half a million people, but the city officials estimated the amount of people at the rally to be less than 300,000.

(A) the amount of people at the rally to be less
(B) the number of people at the rally to be less
(C) the number of people attending the rally at fewer
(D) that the number of people attending the rally was fewer
(E) that the amount of people at the rally was less

On the GMAT SC, how do you talk about things you consider, believe, estimate, hold, think, and know? In this following blog article, I discuss all the idioms appropriate to these words:
GMAT Idioms of Thinking and Knowing
Also, that blog contains a discussion of an older version of this particular SC question.

Mike

Show Answer

Official Answer

B

pqhai · Accepted Answer

+1 kudo for both of you. This is a very good question.

I just want to elaborate a little bit. According to Ron (instructor at Manhattan Gmat), for numerical quantifiers such as:

level
quantity
 number 
figure
rate
percentage
proportion

We should use less instead of "fewer" because numerical quantifiers themselves are uncountable.
For examples: 
The number of  rooms  in my house is  less  than the number of rooms in your house.

Regards.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Ergenekon , I'm happy to help. :-)

With the issue of countable & uncountable, there are three cases: I. uncountable - real-world material that doesn't come in discrete units more water, how much water, much less water, the amount of water less water, how little water, much less water II. countable - real-world material that comes in discrete units more horses, how many horses, many more horses, the number of horses fewer horses, how few horses, many fewer horses III. numbers - pure mathematical objects five is more than three three is less than five Even when we are talking about " the number of ," the focus is still the number, a number that lives somewhere on the number line. As long as we are somewhere on the number line, we are talking about pure mathematical objects, numbers, and we use "less." Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

HumptyDumpty · Answer

According to my knowledge:
"The number of people  is "
"A number of people  are "
Please point out any mistake.

In the OA:
(B) "the number of people at the rally to be fewer"
Can "fewer" modify "the number". Shouldn't "the number" be "lower" or "less"?

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear HumptyDumpty , On the first point, we are in perfect agreement. If we are talking about what the people are doing, then " a number of people are doing X ". If the subject is not the people but the number itself, then " the number of people is divisible by 3. " On the second point, you are totally correct and I was wrong. I updated the question. Thank you for pointing this out. Mike :-)

PiyushK · Answer

What is wrong with option D; option D presents a perfect parallelism as well.

Organizers claimed that the rally for public health care drew close to half a million people, but the city officials estimated the amount of people at the rally to be less than 300,000.

(B) the number of people at the rally to be less

(D) that the number of people attending the rally was less (event happened in past and thus "was less" properly represents tense in option D )

I am not able to identify any error in D; Experts kindly shed some light.

PiyushK · Answer

I got the explanation on Mangoosh: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idiom ... d-knowing/ Estimate that is not a correct Idiom.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear PiyushK , First of all, just for reference, the name of my company, "Magoosh", has no "n" in it. :-)

We did some research, and revised our statement on the verb "estimate" --- under certain circumstance, estimate can take a "that" clause, although the predominate idiom is still estimate P to be Q . That's an older blog, and I didn't realize we still had a statement on that blog: I went back and edited that blog just now. I must apologize. I went back and looked at this question, and there was a typo in the question --- it didn't match the TE. Here's how the question should have been: Organizers claimed that the rally for public health care drew close to half a million people, but the city officials estimated the amount of people at the rally to be less than 300,000. (A) the amount of people at the rally to be less (B) the number of people at the rally to be less (C) the number of people attending the rally at fewer (D) that the number of people attending the rally was fewer (E) that the amount of people at the rally was less Now, it is clear to you that we have only one fully correct answer? Mike :-)

PiyushK · Answer

Hey Mike, Thank you for your prompt response and my apologies for that extra n

All right, "estimate that" and "estimate X to be Y" both are correct idiom : noted and updated my list. Regards

Ergenekon · Answer

I still dont get why we use less with the number.

Ergenekon · Answer

Thanks Mike. It makes a perfect sense now. I have never encountered this concept in the gmat before. Am I alone in this?

apolo · Answer

Hi Mike,

Something about your examples: 
five is more than three OR five is greater than three? Or both are correct?!

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear apolo , Yes, with numbers, it would be more common to use " greater ," but " more " is acceptable in some context. What's tricky is that, when we move from pure mathematical numbers to real-world numbers, we sometimes use " higher ." The melting point of tungsten is higher than that of zinc. The population of Tokyo is greater than that of SF. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Mahmud6 , I'm happy to respond. :-)

My friend, for any issue relevant to a particular question, the thread containing this question is the most appropriate place to ask something or make a request concerning that question, much more appropriate than a pm, because everyone studying the thread should see what you ask and my response. This question has undergone multiple iterations in our Magoosh product. The version that appears at the top now is the version identical to what appears in the Magoosh product in its most up-to-date form. Let me know if you have any questions. Mike :-)

Prashantsri · Answer

A and E are incorrect. ‘amount’ is for uncountable nouns. People can be counted and so, should be referred to with ‘number’. Also, when it comes to ‘number’ we ‘less’ and ‘more’ is to be used. Not ‘greater’ and ‘fewer’.
 
So, the correct answer is C.

raghavrf · Answer

1) Split #1a: Countable vs. uncountable. We can count people, so we speak of a “number” of people, not an “amount” of people. (A) & (E) make this mistake.

Split #1b: Countable vs. uncountable. We can count people, so it would be fewer people, but here we are talking about “number of people”, and for number we use “less.” (C) & (D) incorrectly use “fewer.”

I need kudos please

Kunni · Answer

Hi phqai,

Could you please provide examples of each kind of quantifier.

Regards
Kunal

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Organizers claimed that the rally for public health care drew close to

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