In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the average num

In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than the comparable period a year ago.

A) the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than

B) on average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than it was

C) the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than in

D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in

E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in

A. The numbers are countable, so fewer must be used.
B. Same error as in A
C. the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than (sold) in. In my opinion ellipsis is at play here. looks correct.
D. I think what it did is a bit vague in the context. Otherwise I don't find any other error.
E. Same error as in A.
C looks correct to me, but not sure.

In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than the comparable period a year ago.

A) the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than

B) on average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than it was

C) the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than in

D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in

E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in

Let's start with meaning:
1. this is a comparison. Currently, we're comparing the average number of Sunday papers vs. the comparable period, which obviously can't be correct. We need to compare similar things.

2. Less than is not correct for countable things (81,000). Fewer is correct for countable.

Grammar-wise, everything looks fine.

The only one that gets the comparison right is C. It uses the parallelism "in the six-month period" and "in the comparable period" to make sure we know that we're comparing the number of papers sold in each period. We should always look for parallelism in comparisons, so it's good to find it here.

Correct answer is C option.

1) Here the comparison is between the 2 periods , not between what company did in 2 periods. The opening clause- In the six month period, we get to know that comparison should be in between the periods. Eliminate D

2) Number of newspaper is a countable noun, therefore- Fewer. Eliminate A,B and E


A) the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than

B) on average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than it was

C) the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than in- CORRECT

D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in

E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in

In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than the comparable period a year ago.

A) the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than
The average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less in the six-month period that ended on September 30 than the comparable period a year ago.

B) on average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than it was
On average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less in the six-month period that ended on September 30 than it was the comparable period a year ago.

C) the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than in
The company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers in the six-month period that ended on September 30 than in the comparable period a year ago.

D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in
The company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers in the six-month period that ended on September 30 than what it did in the comparable period a year ago.

E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in
The average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less in the six-month period that ended on September 30 than what they were in the comparable period a year ago.

First of all, note that original sentence is wrong since comparison is wrong. It compares the average number of Sunday papers to the comparable period. Also this acts as a clue that we need a similar structure of the two compared entities - the six-month period and the comparable period.
Look a the reversed versions of the options.
Hence, A is straight out as it suggests that is compares the average number of Sunday paper to the comparable period, which is illogical.
B - Comparison looks fine. Here 'in' is missing.
C - 'in the six-month period' and 'in the comparable period' is what we are looking for.
D - Should have been like: The company did something fewer in number 'in one period' than 'in another period'. Though i have bit of apprehensions about this one.
E - Pronoun error 'they' refer back to 'the average sale' which is singular subject. Comparison is fine.

Note: The 81000 number of papers is countable hence fewer is required. Also, 81000 is the difference between the two sales figures of the two periods. So, 81000 is not compared - only periods are compared.

IMO Answer C.

In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than the comparable period a year ago.

OBVIOUSLY THE BATTLE IS BETWEEN OPTION "D" AND "C" BUT LET'S LOOK ALL ANSWER CHOICES THOROUGHLY

1-The comparison is between the average number of papers sold by company in the six months period this year and the same period last year.
"FOCUS ON THE MEANING OF THE SENTENCE"
2- Less vs Fewer ( please keep in mind its always fewer not few)
A, B & E out

BUT we will look at answer choices based on meaning and comparison

A) the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than
Number of papers sold this year for a particular period is compared with the period last year ( Incorrect)

B) on average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than it was
IF " IT " refers to number, the comparison is as follows:
Number of papers sold this year for a particular period is less than the number was last year
[The sales are compared with the number] (Incorrect)

C) the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than in
Read it this way :
The company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers in the six-month period that ended on September 30 than in the comparable period a year ago.( Correct)

D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in
"did" is a kind of pronoun for verbs. It is used to refer to a previous action.
Here "did" refers to the only previous action which is "averaged":
the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what company averaged in the comparable period a year ago.
averaged sales are compared with averaged. Company doesn't averaged anything else.( Incorrect)

E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in
"they refers to papers"
The average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what papers were in ( Incorrect)

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than the comparable period a year ago.

A) the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than

B) on average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than it was

C) the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than in

D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in

E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in

After a quick glance over the options, there are a lot of places we could focus on here. However, we did find a few key differences we can focus on to narrow down our choices rather quickly:

1. sold by the company / the company sold / the company averaged / for the company (Active/Passive Voice & Meaning)
2. fewer vs. less (Idioms & Diction)
3. than / than it was / than in / than what it did / than what they were in (Comparisons)

Since #2 on our list is an “either/or” split, let’s start there. This is an issue of idioms when it comes to countable/non-countable nouns. Since we’re discussing newspapers, which are countable, we need to use “fewer.” Let’s see how our options stack up:

A) the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than

B) on average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than it was

C) the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than in

D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in

E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in

We can eliminate options A, B, & E because “less” doesn’t work with countable nouns. Now that we have it narrowed down to only 2 options, let’s focus on the other items on our list to determine which option is the better choice. (To make problems easier to spot, we’ll add in the non-underlined portions.)

C) In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than in the comparable period a year ago.
This is our CORRECT option! The two time periods are parallel, and the phrase “sold an average of” is much clearer than “averaged sales of.”

D) In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in the comparable period a year ago.
This is INCORRECT because the two time periods aren’t written using parallel construction. Also, the phrase “averaged sales of” isn’t the clearest way to convey the intended meaning. The focus here should be on the sale, not the average.

There you have it - option C is our winner! By focusing first on the “either/or” split, we were able to eliminate several options rather quickly, giving us more time to focus on more complex grammatical issues.

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

COMPARISON, MODIFIERS, PRONOUNS


[quote="generis"]In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than the comparable period a year ago.

A) the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than ----- WRONG COMPARISON. "Average number vs period"

B) on average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than it was ------- WRONG MODIFIER POSITIONS. Two modifiers in a row " in the six..." and "on average".

C) the company sold an average of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than in ----- CORRECT

D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in ------ WRONG MEANING. We want to compare what the company "sold" not what the company "averaged".

E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in ------- WRONG PRONOUN. "they" has no referent.

Request Expert Reply:
Hi,
It seems that the company sold the 'number' in choice A and B! Company can't sell the 'number' in real world connection. So, can we cross out choice A and B for this reason?

Also, could you clarify why choice D is wrong?
Thank you...

Hi

It is not correct to read "number" in isolation. In both (A) and (B), what is being sold is not the "number" itself, but the "number of Sunday papers". This is absolutely fine. The problem with (A) and (B) comes in the incorrect comparison of inconsistent items and usage of "lesser than" instead of "fewer than" for countables.

There is no obvious glaring error in (D). However, the usage of "what" is unnecessary; one can merely say "averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than it did in". Also, the usage of "averaged" as a verb followed by "sales" as noun is awkward, though not outright incorrect. Because of these issues, the much cleaner option (C) is better.

Hope this helps.

Hi!EMPOWERgmatVerbal
I am quite confused about the split of "fewer" and "less". I think even if we are discussing the papers now, in choice ABE they use "the average number" as the subject for the comparison and thus the things being compared are the numbers, not the papers. If we use "fewer", aren't we saying we can count the "number" by "one number, two numbers, three numbers"...? I think less should be the correct phrase here because we use "less" the describe the degree of the "number" but not the number itself?
Could you please explain?

Great question IreneGao!

In this case, "the average number of Sunday papers" is still considered a countable grouping of items and should use "fewer." If the phrase "the average number" didn't have a countable noun attached to it, you would use "less."

Even if we were to skip the fewer/less difference, options A, B, & E all had other problems. We were just looking for a quick and easy one to eliminate options fast, so you could move on to the more complicated issues. #3 on our list (parallel comparisons) would have also eliminated those options because only option C did this correctly.

We hope that helps! There is always more than one way to tackle each question - we just went with our trusted method of choosing the either/or problems first, and then moving into more complex issues once we've narrowed it down. But if the less/fewer thing seems confusing (and on the GMAT, that's often done on purpose to throw you off), then focus on another issue and see if that helps you narrow things down.

Keep tagging us at EMPOWERgmatVerbal with any other questions!

Hi @IanStewart @avigutman @MartyTargetTestPrep

IanStewart and avigutman MartyTargetTestPrep

I have no problem with the correct answer (C) and could eliminate other options with the issue of comparison. But since I hope to learn more about the use of "the number," the use of "average," and sentence structure, could I ask you some questions?

1. Cannot the word "LESS" be used after "the number of sold papers"?

In previous posts in this thread, some members said that the use of "less" is wrong in options (A), (B) and (E), since "paper" is a countable noun, and hence the sentences should use the word "fewer."

But I am not not sure about this explanation. First, the official explanation does not point out that the use of "less" is a mistake in those options. I know that we cannot fully rely on the official explanations since they sometimes do not cover all the issues in an option, but I think as the use of "fewer" and "less" is fundamental, if the use of "less" is wrong, the official explanations will include this point.

Secondly, while "the number of" can be followed only by countable noun (so we don't say "the amount of sold papers" here), "the number" itself is singular, and "81,000" is just a figure. It seems to me that in the options (A), (B) and (E), the sentences just try to compare two quantities in different periods--X vs X+81,000, to show a change in a statistic. Since they are quantities related by subtraction, I personally think that the use of "less" is fine.

A) the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than
B) on average, the number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than it was
E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in[/quote]

I tried to find an instance in famous news sites to support my opinion, but unfortunately I could not find one--writers in the real world seem to prefer the writing style in options (C) and (D), avoiding the split between "fewer" and "less." On the other hand, I understand why the word "fewer" is correct in the options (C) and (D), as "fewer" modifies the countable noun "papers."

2. Can the word "WHAT" be correctly used in a comparison structure?

D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in
E) the average sale of Sunday papers for the company was 81,000 less than what they were in[/quote]

I eliminated (D) and (E) mainly because of the word "what." Since the word "what," when used as a pronoun, basically means "the thing(s) that," I think it carries an unclear meaning in the sentences--what does "the things that" refer to exactly?

In the option (D), we want to compare the company's actions/state/performance in two periods, so the second half should be "than it (=the company) did in." In the option (E), we want to compare a sale to another sale, so the second half should be "than it was in." (Or maybe "than that in" if we consider the two sales different.)

I noticed that it is not the first SC question that incorrectly puts the word "what" in its comparison structure. The latest question I remembered is this (https://reurl.cc/e3x1KM), in which the word "what" also shows up in an incorrect option:

Even with the proposed budget cuts and new taxes and fees, the city's projected deficit for the next budget year is getting worse: administration officials announced that they believe the gap will be $3.7 billion, a billion dollars over what it was predicted just two months ago.

I cannot remember any case in which "what" is correctly used in a comparison structure, but I am not certain since I have not covered most SC questions released by OG or GMAT prep. When you experts see "what" in SC comparison question, do you view it as a red flag?

3. Is the use of "average" correct in the option (D)?
D) the company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than what it did in

Some members said in previous posts that they thought the use of "average" is weird and awkward. Initially, I shared the same idea because I seldom see the word "average" used as a verb before a noun. But later, I checked the Webster dictionary and other dictionary and found that the usage seems fine. Similar examples would be "The doctor averages 12 hours of work a day" and "The show averages a weekly audience of eight million." What do you think about this use?

Thank you so much!

I haven't read the earlier replies, but "less" is correct here. "The number of papers sold on Friday was less than the number sold on Thursday" is correct, and using "fewer" in a sentence like that would simply be wrong. I think everything you've said is right -- we would say "fewer papers", but we say one number is "less than" another. And I'd add that some people apply 'rules" about "less" and "fewer" far too strictly; there are a lot of situations where it's perfectly correct to use "less" even when referring to countable things ("you can buy 3 items or less" or "I have less than 10 dollars" are perfectly acceptable sentences, as the usage note in the M-W dictionary entry here discusses -- they add that "a definitive rule covering all possibilities is maybe impossible").


It can be in everyday usage, though I'm not sure it ever would be used on the GMAT. It seems to me that it's too informal and too imprecise, and it can always be avoided, so I'd think the GMAT wouldn't use "what" in this way in a correct answer, but I'd need to look over a lot of official questions to be confident I'm right about that, so don't rely on my answer here.



On a minute's reflection, I can't quite tell if the use of "average" here is absolutely wrong (it seems to be to me) or if it's just so awkward that it appears to be wrong. As you point out, it's perfectly fine to say "The company averaged sales of 81,000 papers on Sundays last year". But it doesn't make sense to me that the company could average sales of "81,000 fewer Sunday papers", because "81,000 fewer papers" is not an average. We should compare one average with another in this case: "the company's average sales of its Sunday paper this year was 81,000 less than its average last year" is fine, as is "On average, the company sold 81,000 fewer papers this year than last year". Regardless of whether it's technically correct to use "average" as a verb in this way, when its followed by a comparison, it's so awkward I'd always be looking for an alternative.

Thank you so much IanStewart
IanStewart
Really appreciate your time and insights into these issues.

I feel more confident about the use of "less" now. And thank you for explaining the use of "what." It seems that an option using "what" this way could be inferior to other options since "what" does not really have a clear referent.

The use of "average" as a verb before a noun is new to me, so is the combination of "average" as a verb and comparative signals "fewer."
I understand that it might be weird to say "The company averaged sales of 81,000 fewer Sunday papers than last year," because "81,000 fewer papers" is not an average. But could I have a follow-up quesdotn as I notice that the correct option (C) seems to have a similar structure?


The word "average" is used as a noun in the option (C), but it is also followed by "fewer," though technically speaking, "81,000 fewer papers" cannot be an average. Given that this use (the combination of "average" and "fewer") appears in a correct option, this use might be okay. Please correct me if I have misunderstood the structure of option (C).

I think that the following two sentences would be even more clear than the option (C), but it is a pity that they might not show up in most SC options:
1. The company sold on average 81,000 fewer papers this year than last year.
2. The company's average sales of its Sunday paper this year was 81,000 less than its average last year.

Thank you very much.

It's when "average" is used as a verb that I find the comparative phrase strange (and it at least feels wrong to me). The phrases that use "average" as a noun are all idiomatic English; we sometimes want to compare averages, so we wouldn't want grammatical rules to be so strict that they prevent us from expressing a useful idea.

Thanks Ian so much for your further explanations!
Really appreciate your time and response.

egmat, MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja, can you please shed light on the usage of less and fewer here. I understand that since in choice C, the focus is on the papers and not the number itself, and that papers are a countable noun, we have to use fewer and not less.

Thank you!