The controversial restructuring plan for the county school district, i

Question

The controversial restructuring plan for the county school district, if approved by the governor, would result  in 30% fewer teachers and 15% less classroom contact-time throughout schools in the county.

(A) in 30% fewer teachers and 15% less
(B) in 30% fewer teachers and 15% fewer
(C) in 30% less teachers and 15% less
(D) with 30% fewer teachers and 15% fewer
(E) with 30% less teachers and 15% less

Patronus · Answer

If I may respond

, here is how I would go through this SC: 1) Can you count "teachers"? Yes. 1 teacher, 2 teachers, 3 teachers... So, for countable nouns, use "fewer". Option C, E are out 2) Can you count "classroom contact-time"? No. 1 classroom contact-time, 2 classroom contact-times.. STOP. So, for uncountable nouns, use "less". Options B, D are out. We are only left with option A , which is the right answer.

vishwaprakash · Answer

My Attempt is as follow :

We use Few for countable noun and Less for uncountable noun.
Few apple, Few teachers.
Less water, Less Time.

Keeping Above Consideration in view, Lets do split.

Split 1 # fewer teacher Vs less teacher. Teacher is countable, Hence fewer is appropriate. Hence Option C and Option E are incorrect.

Split 2 # Less contact time Vs Fewer contact time. We use less in reference time. I have less time, we never say "I have few time". Hence Option B and D are out.
So clearly Option A is correct.

Just for sake of explanation lets consider
Split 3# Would result with Vs Would result In. Would result In is appropriate in the current reference. Act resulted in something is correct. Hence option D and E are out.

shriramvelamuri · Answer

Yes Answer A wins, but I have a question..

'Percentage' as a noun is uncountable - So how do we differentiate. please educate.

vishwaprakash · Answer

hi  shriramvelamuri ,

May i attempt to help here ?

What do you actually mean "So how do we differentiate.". Do you want to say how to differentiate between countable and uncountable noun.

Anything that represents uncountable bulk, "Percentage" denotes bulk hence uncountable.

If you would say "How much X" then Uncountable, If you would say "How many" then countable.

For example.
Money is uncountable but $ is countable.

Time is uncountable but Hours is countable.

rohitkumar77 · Answer

The correct usage is results in so D AND E are out . result with is incorrect and also meaning and sound wise is weird.
Left with A B and C . 
Fewer is used for countable objects and less for non countable objects ; so taking that into account answer is A .

(A) in 30% fewer teachers and 15% less
 fewer teachers correct and less contact time too  
(B) in 30% fewer teachers and 15% fewer
15% fewer contact time - cant use fewer with time ; 
 
(C) in 30% less teachers and 15% less
no of teachers are countable so less here is wrong

(D) with 30% fewer teachers and 15% fewer
result with is incorrect
(E) with 30% less teachers and 15% less
result with is incorrect

daagh · Answer

Percentage of plural nouns is countable and will require fewer; percentage of measurable or mass nouns is singular and uncountable and hence require less

Here we need fewer for teachers and less for contact time - this fewer and less combo is found only in A.

chesstitans · Answer

hello, pls help.
I know this phrase is not underlined, but some gmat questions do ask about this issue 
", if approved by the governor, "

The above phrase is fine?

sandysilva · Answer

The controversial restructuring plan for the county school district, if approved by the governor, would result in 30% fewer teachers and 15% less classroom contact-time throughout schools in the county.

(A) in 30% fewer teachers and 15% less-  Correct 
(B) in 30% fewer teachers and 15% fewer-  15% fewer is incorrect. The sentence is talking about contact time that is uncountable, therefore less is required 
(C) in 30% less teachers and 15% less-  less is incorrect. For countable noun "teachers" few is required. 
(D) with 30% fewer teachers and 15% fewer-  Same issue as in choice B. 
(E) with 30% less teachers and 15% less-  Same issue as in C. less is incorrect as it refers to teachers.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

chesstitans  Yes, "if approved" works just fine as a modifier. If approved, the plan would result in XYZ.

However, the sentence is a bit odd. What does it mean to have "30% fewer teachers throughout schools in the county"? The sentence seems to be saying that every single school will have exactly 30% fewer teachers? This seems unlikely. (What if the school has, say, 25 teachers?) It should probably say "30% fewer teachers throughout the county." If we want to add "school," we might put it in front of "teachers."

VerbalBot · Answer

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The controversial restructuring plan for the county school district, i

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The controversial restructuring plan for the county school district, i

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