Quantifiers and Comparisons

Question

Recognizing quantifiers in Sentence Correction questions 
 https://gmat.economist.com/sites/gmat.economist.com/files/u466/gmat-quantifiers-sentence-correction.png

A tricky area of sentence correction involves quantifiers. Because these questions occurs so often, it is a good idea to train yourself to recognize these structures, so you can learn how to identify the possible traps the test makers can use with them.

We'll use the following question from the Economist GMAT Tutor:

The number of individuals of historically under-represented minorities, notably African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans, who earn degrees in physics and pursue successful careers in physics in the United States is  increasing thanks to the work of the APS Committee on Minorities (COM).

A) The number of individuals of historically under-represented minorities, notably African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans, who earn degrees in physics and pursue successful careers in physics in the United States is

B) The numbers of individuals of historically under-represented minorities, notably African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans, who earn degrees in physics and pursue successful 
careers in physics in the United States has been

C) The number of individuals of historically under-represented minorities, notably African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans, who earn degrees in physics and pursue successful careers in physics in the United States are

D) The number of individuals of historically under-represented minorities, notably African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans, who earns degrees in physics and pursue successful careers in physics in the United States has

E) A number of individuals of historically under-represented minorities, notably African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans, who earn degrees in physics and pursues successful careers in physics in the United States is

Remember this rule for questions with quantifiers

A quick way through this question is to remember the rule:

The number – singular

A number – plural

For example, the number of students is very high. A number of books are on the table.

Solving from there

Notice the subject is a long way from its verb in the problem we are considering. This is another distracter called “long distance between subject and verb”.

Let’s cut through the intervening words to make the answer clear.

A) The number is increasing – correct.
B) The numbers has been increasing. Lack of agreement between “numbers” and “has”. Changes the meaning of the original sentence by changing the tense. 
C) The number are increasing – incorrect because of the lack of agreement between “number” and “are”.
D) The number has increasing – grammatically incorrect. 
E) A number is – incorrect because of the lack of agreement between “number” and “is”.

There are other things to note about this question:

The subject is “the number of individuals”. The test makers are trying to get us to think of the subject as plural, because of the presence of the word “individuals”. However, the subject is singular.

Note the plural verb “earn” in the middle of the options. Every subject in a sentence must have a verb, and in this case the subject of “earn” is plural and therefore the verb is in the plural form.
Remember this rule about “a number of” and “the number of”, as it occurs so frequently on the GMAT. There are a limited number of tricks to remember, and here is a good one to add to your toolbox!

Further help on the topic.

A quantifier is a word used before nouns to give information about quantity.

Example: many people; much food

Quantifiers such as: many, few, a few, several, a lot of, and the number of are used with plural words (when there is more than one).

BUT:

Be careful with the word number. We say: The number of people IS (the number is ONE number so it is singular)

BUT:  A number of will always have a plural verb: A number of people see this movie every year. (A number of means several)

Other quantifiers such as: much, little, a little, less, and the amount of are used before non-count nouns (nouns that cannot be made plural).

Other quantifying words will take a plural or singular word depending on what follows:

All the people are 
 All the money is 
 None of the people are 
 None of the bread is... 
 Some of the children take... 
 Some of the knowledge takes... 
 A lot of money 
 A lot of cars

Words such as 'percentage' are fractional expressions (like half of, a part of, a majority of etc) and can be singular OR plural, depending on the meaning and what comes after it (whether that is singular or plural).

Some of the voters are angry. 
 A large percentage of the population is angry. 
 A large percentage of the voters are angry. 
 Two-fifths of the trees were burned. 
 Three-quarters of the vineyard was destroyed by fire. 
 Forty percent of the members are in favor of changing the policy. 
 Sixty percent of the organization is in favor of changing the policy.

Strategies for GMAT comparison questions 
 https://gmat.economist.com/sites/gmat.economist.com/files/u466/GMAT-comparison-questions.png

The new Sentence Correction questions in the 2016 Official Guide to the GMAT include several comparison questions. You can assume the test makers have a focus on this area, and it is a good idea to be well prepared for such questions.

The wrong way

Consider the following example:

The leaves on the trees in Canada are greener than the trees in the United States.

You know this question is a comparison question from the presence of the comparative form of the adjective (greener). As soon as you see a comparative form of an adjective, you know there must be the word “than” somewhere in the sentence. Once you have checked for the presence of “than”, you should ask yourself: “What two things are being compared?” The answer to this question would be “the leaves on the trees in Canada” and “the trees in the United States”. This is an invalid comparison. You must compare things that can be compared. For example, you can compare trees with trees, or leaves with leaves. Therefore, the correct answer must compare well from a logical standpoint. The comparison must also be grammatically correct of course, utilizing the correct structure (eg greener + than; more beautiful + than etc).

A better answer

There is also the issue of what is stylistically better, even with comparative questions.

The above sentence can be rewritten correctly as:

The leaves on the trees in Canada are greener than  the leaves on the trees in the United States.

You may argue that this is unnecessarily long, repetitive and stylistically poor. I agree. That leaves us with...

The best answer

Consider this option:

The leaves on the trees in Canada are greener than  those on the trees in the United States.

This is a good option. The word “those” in this sentence could be described as a reference word or ‘determiner’. It refers to something already mentioned, in this case “leaves”. When you see a reference word in an option in answer to a comparison question, look very closely at it, as reference words are often necessary on the GMAT. The singular form is “that”.

Consider the following correct example of the use of “that” as a reference word:

The roof of my building is steeper than that of my neighbor’s building.

Comparisons have always been a big part of GMAT sentence correction. It seems they are only becoming more important. Be very familiar with this type of question.

nishitraj · Answer

Lack of agreement between “numbers” and “has”. Why is it worng. I mean, The number is singular right. Singular_has.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Quantifiers and Comparisons

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