Without adequate amounts of sleep, people's newly acquired skills and

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning of this sentence is key to solving this question; the intended meaning is that in the scenario that people do not get adequate amounts of sleep, newly acquired skills and even new factual information may not get properly encoded into their memory circuits.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Mosidifiers + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• In a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses "Without adequate amounts of sleep" to modify "people's newly acquired skills and...factual information", illogically implying that in the given scenario the skills and information are not getting an adequate amount of sleep; the intended meaning is that in the given scenario the people are not getting an adequate amount of sleep; remember, in a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option A uses the redundant phrase "and also", rendering it awkward and needlessly wordy.

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses "Without the adequate amount of sleep they need" to modify "people's newly acquired skills and...factual information", illogically implying that in the given scenario the skills and information are not getting an adequate amount of sleep; the intended meaning is that in the given scenario the people are not getting an adequate amount of sleep; remember, in a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option B uses the needlessly wordy phrase "the adequate amount of sleep they need", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses "If they do not have adequate amounts of sleep" to modify "people's newly acquired skills and...factual information", illogically implying that in the given scenario the skills and information are not getting an adequate amount of sleep; the intended meaning is that in the given scenario the people are not getting an adequate amount of sleep; remember, in a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.

D: Correct. This answer choice avoids the modifier error seen in Options A, B, and C through its use of the phrase "If people do not get adequate amounts of sleep"; the construction of this phrase conveys the intended meaning - that in the given scenario the people are not getting an adequate amount of sleep. Further, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E: This answer choice uses the needlessly wordy phrases "the adequate amount of sleep they need" and "and also", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

Additional Note: Please note, this is an older question that also tests a now-defunct pronoun rule; Options B and C utilize the subject pronoun "they" to refer to the possessive noun "people's"; such usage was once considered incorrect on GMAT, but is now largely accepted.

To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

folks,

what is the difference between ' amounts of sleep' and 'amount of sleep'

For E- the Off explanation says adequate..they need is redundant. Also the use of 'and also' makes sense to me. !!

But in D it says newly acquired skills and 'even'. I do not see a difference here between 'skills and also' and 'skills and even'.

@vercules- could you comment?

Hi rajathpanta,

'and also' is considered redundant on the GMAT. It can be replaced by the simple 'and' without changing the meaning. 'and even' is used to put more emphasis on the phrase coming after. To put it in simple words, just remember that GMAT considers 'and also' redundant.

Hope this helps,
Vercules

A. Without adequate amounts of sleep, people's newly acquired skills and also (and also together is not correct)
B. Without the adequate amount of sleep they need, people's newly acquired skills and even (no mention of who they are)
C. If they do not have adequate amounts of sleep, people's newly acquired skills and even (same as above)
D. If people do not get adequate amounts of sleep, newly acquired skills and even (best choice)
E. If people do not get the adequate amount of sleep they need, newly acquired skills and also (same as option A)

Hi,

The Q is related to Modifiers...

WHO is "without adequate amounts of sleep",it is the PEOPLE and not their skills....
So A,B and C are out..

Left with D and E, the point is between adequate amounts of sleep and the adequate amount of sleep...
We are not talking of some specific thing, so THE is not required.

D

Hi GMATNinja,

Can you also throw some light on the usage of 'amount of something' and 'amounts of something'. Do they mean the same? Under what scenarios can the usage of 'amounts of' be right and wrong?

Interesting question, Vyshak. I don't really think it's an issue at all -- they don't really differ substantially in meaning, and I can't really think of a case when one would be correct and another would be incorrect. Honestly, the singular version ("amount of sleep") sounds better to me, but the GMAT clearly has no problem with "amounts of sleep"... and as usual, the GMAT really doesn't care what I think sounds better.

So I wouldn't worry about it. It's never the deciding factor in any official questions.

Because of other errors, obviously Option E eliminates all other options.

But

I think "adequate amount" is correct usage while "adequate amounts" is not.

Can someone throw some light on this?

In generalizations, 'adequate 'amount' is better, but adequate 'amounts' is also passable if the singular 'amount' is not there. However, 'the adequate amount' is indeed wrong in the context.

First, if you're trying to conquer the GMAT, there is no such thing as an incorrect usage in a correct answer! Our goal is never to challenge the OA's from official material - it's to understand why a given construction is acceptable in the GMAT's eyes. (Full disclosure: as a former editor and freelance writer, I often disagree with the GMAT's ideas about English grammar and usage. But those disagreements are 100% useless. )

Anyway, the distinction between "amount" and "amounts" boils down to whether we're referring to a single quantity or multiple quantities.

If we were referring to a single value, we'd use "amount." For example, "Last night Souvik passed out for 14 hours, a genuinely staggering amount of sleep."

If we were referring to multiple values, we'd use "amounts." For example, "During the last two nights, Souvik passed out for 14 and 16 hours respectively, genuinely staggering amounts of sleep."

Now consider answer choice (E):


Because we're dealing with multiple "people" who are likely sleeping for different lengths of time, this construction is analogous to the second example above in which "amounts" refers to more than one quantity.

I hope that helps!

Could someone explain why it's clear that "Without adequate amounts of sleep" is a noun modifier requiring people?
When I was doing this problem I tried moving the modifier to the end of the sentence and it seemed fine to me : "people's newly acquired skills ..may not get properly encoded ... without adequate amounts of sleep". As a result, I thought that the noun modifier could modify "newly acquired skills and also new factual information"

Option D felt like a list, IF people do not get X, y and even Z- did not make sense. I thought it needs some kind of extra verb or modifier to separate it

"without phrase" is a preposition phrase, which can work as adverb or adjective

the British girl without a hat is my friend.
I learn gmat without a teacher.

the point here is that as an adverb or adjective, without phrase need a noun/person/subject to refer to. choice A and B dose not contain that noun, so, without phrase is wrong logically

Notice that there is no comma after "y". In order to have a parallel list in the opening "if" clause, the sentence would have to be structured like this: "If people do not get adequate amounts of sleep, newly acquired skills, and even new factual information..." And of course, that wouldn't make any sense!

As written, (D) says, "If people do not get adequate amounts of X, [then] A and B may not get properly encoded into their memory circuits." Here, "A and B" (skills and information) is a parallel list of nouns, forming the subject of the sentence. The word "then" is implied, and doesn't need to be stated.

I hope this helps a bit!

I got the right answer D by eliminating the incorrect grammar and redundancies, but I have one question - is "amounts" correct idiom? If yes, then when to use amount and when to use amounts?

Explained in detail here. Let us know if that doesn't answer your question.