The administration has increased the number of fines for

Question

The administration  has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their  campaign to protect miners.

A. has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their
B. have increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their
C. has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of its
D. has increased the amount of fines for mining safety violations as part of its
E. have increased the amount of fines for mining safety violations as part of their

daagh · Accepted Answer

The number here refers to the instances or situations in which fine are imposed for violations. If the number before was four times, now, the admin is seeking to increase it to say eight times. So the amount of money is not involved here.

The admin being singular, the verb will be  has  and the pronoun  its  – A, B and E are out.

In addition, when a plural noun such as  fines  is used, we have to use a countable subject or object and the right choice will be the one using the countable  number  – Between C and D, C is the choice therefore;

abhas59 · Answer

The sentence states to increase the "number of fines" to protect miners.
It means the number of fines (not the cost of fine) will be increased.
"amount" will only hold true for cost a particular fine.
As plural noun fines is used, thus above sentence talks about number of fines not about the cost of a fine.
Thus C is a best option among others stated.

pranrasvij · Answer

i also went with D but since the violations are more , maybe they mean that number of tickets issued will be increased as well. We can only take the simple option i guess and not actually worry about amounts,etc...

vwjetty · Answer

C is the best because fines is a countable number where you can count it as...one fine, two fine, etc etc...

thus making it a countable modifier whereas uncountable modifiers such as amount cannot be counted.

pdarun · Answer

+1 for D.

Sounds ridiculous to say number of fines! Miners can be protected by improing the safety guideliness and increasing the amount of fines for violating any of those guideliness ---- The number of would make sense if the sentence was talking about the guideliness! Its illogical to say there would be cap on the max/min number of fines handed out in case of violations........

GMAT english is killing me

Grrrrrrrr........

Wizd · Answer

IMO C. As Abhas59 said, Increase in the the amount will go only 1 fine or may not be the uniform, as the choice D suggests. Therefore it makes more sense to select C as the number of fines are being increased.

arirux92 · Answer

I believe both C & D are correct grammatically.

In the end it boils down to the meaning of the original sentence. Has the original sentence said amount, I am sure the answer would have been D. I believe the argument of number vs amount is irrelevant.

sayantanc2k · Answer

arirux92 I see your point and do agree to an extent. However please note that fines is plural. If one used amount , then probably singular fine would have to be used to convey the correct meaning. (although plural fines would still make sense as explained at the end of this post) Correct: ...increased number of fines... (meaning: before there were x no. of fines, now there are x+y no. of fines) Correct: ...increased amount of fine.... ( meaning: before Rs. x was fined, now Rs. x+y is fined) Nonetheless, amount of fines could also be correct (meaning: the money charged for all the fines have been increased) Bottom line: I agree with you in any case :-D

kannu44 · Answer

reply from mgmat staff

The difference between (C) and (D) is the "number of fines" vs. the "amount of fines." We use "number of" for countable nouns and "amount of" for uncountable nouns. For example, we would use "number of hats" because we can count hats: one hat, two hats, etc. However, we would use "amount of water" because water is not countable; we would not count one water, two waters, etc.

The intent of the question is to say that those who violate mining safety will incur more fines. Because we can count fines (the violators will face one fine, two fines, three fines, etc.), we'll use "number of fines."

If the sentence wanted to say that the amount on the fines would be increased (a $50 fine was increased to $100), perhaps it would say "increased the amounts of the fines for mining safety violations."

Nunuboy1994 · Answer

Fines, just like tickets, are a countable item so the correct term is "number of." How many students are in the room? How many tickets do you have? How many seats are there? How much water is there?

anairamitch1804 · Answer

The original sentence contains one error; the plural “their” can not refer to the singular
“administration.”

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) This choice repeats the original error; the plural “their” can not refer to the singular
“administration.” Furthermore, the plural “have increased” does not agree with “administration.”

(C) CORRECT. Choice C correctly employs the singular “has increased” and “its”; both agree with the
singular “administration.”

(D) This choice correctly uses the singular “has increased” and “its”; both agree with the singular
“administration.” However, the use of “amount” is incorrect. “Amount is used for
uncountable quantities. “Fines” are countable, and so “number” should be used.

(E) Choice E incorrectly uses “amount.” “Amount is used for uncountable quantities. “Fines” are
countable, and so “number” should be used. Also, the plural “have increased” and the plural “their”
cannot refer to the singular “administration.”

parijit · Answer

How can administrators decide how many dedefaults are made so how can they increse the number of fines.

Posted from my mobile device

Skywalker18 · Answer

The administration  has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their  campaign to protect miners.

A. has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their - Pronoun agreement issue - their used to refer to administration
B. have increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their - Subject-verb agreement issue - the administration is singular ; their used to refer to administration
C. has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of its - Correct
D. has increased the amount of fines for mining safety violations as part of its - fines is a countable and thus we need the number
E. have increased the amount of fines for mining safety violations as part of their - Same as B

Answer C

C- The administration has increased the  number of fines  for mining safety violations as part of its campaign to protect miners. - this sentence talks about the instances in which fines have been imposed

F- The administration has increased the  amount of fine  for mining safety violations as part of its campaign to protect miners. -  Doesn't this sentence talks about quantum of the fine applicable? Though the meaning is different from sentence C, I feel that this is a logical meaning. Let's say previously the fine for mining safety violation was 10 million dollars and now it has been increased to 20 million dollars.
 
D- The administration has increased the  amount of fines  for mining safety violations as part of its campaign to protect miners. -  Similarly, based on the severity of mining violation, different amounts of fine have been set. 
For the lowest category, the amount is less - say 1 million dollars and for the middle category, the amount is 5 million dollar and so on.

Won't this sentence make sense then?

AjiteshArun  ,  GMATNinja  ,  egmat  ,  RonPurewal  ,  DmitryFarber  ,  MagooshExpert  ,  ccooley  ,  ChiranjeevSingh ,  GMATGuruNY  ,  VeritasKarishma  ,  daagh , other experts-- please enlighten

GMATGuruNY · Answer

a fine  = an AMOUNT of money that must be paid for an infraction.
Thus,  an amount of fine  =  an amount of an amount .
The result is an error of redundancy.

mayankrastogi10 · Answer

C is correct
Administration is a collective noun which is singular in this case so we have to use "has" and "it's" to satisfy the subject verb agreement and subject pronoun agreement.

As far as number and amount is concerned since here only fines is used in all the answer choices , it must be number of fines as amount of fines is an invalid phrase.

Posted from my mobile device

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The administration has increased the number of fines for

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