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24 Mar 2022, 23:25
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Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
45%
(medium)
Question Stats:
54% (01:07) correct
46%
(01:14)
wrong
based on 272
sessions
History
Date
Time
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Although the number of romance novels published by Harlequin Enterprises in 2002 amounts to a sum greater than 50 percent of all the romance titles published that year, the company's sales were still down because of high growth in other genres of women's fiction.
A) amounts to a sum greater than
B) amounts to greater than
C) amounted to over
D) amounted to larger than
E) amounted to a sum greater than
24 Mar 2022, 23:26
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
THE PROMPT
Quote:
• MEANING?
Although Harlequin Enterprises published more than half of all the romance novels in 2002 [and thus we would expect that company's sales to have been high], Harlequin's sales were nonetheless down because of high growth in sales of other kinds of women's fiction books.
• ISSUE: VERB TENSE
When verb tenses differ in the answer choices, you have almost certainly found a "split" upon whose basis you can eliminate a couple or more answer choices, so immediately check the prompt.
In particular, check the non-underlined portion for a verb whose tense will give you information about the different verb tenses in the answer choices.
Under pressure, it is easy to forget to read, let alone parse, the non-underlined portion of the sentence.
In this question, you will see that "the company's sales were still down . . ." That were is simple past tense.
In addition, look for clues that might not be registering in your brain: in this sentence, the year 2002—two decades ago—lets you know that we are dealing with some kind of past tense.
• ISSUE: QUANTIFIERS IN COMPARISONS
Two details.
First, a sum is itself a number (as is, say, "population") and thus takes greater than, not more than.
A sum and many other "number" nouns can also be used comparatively with the word over:
-- The new city park covers just over 100 acres.
-- Over 90 percent of Americans like ice cream.
You can read example sentences in Oxford online dictionary here. (Scroll down to 3: "Higher than or more than (a specified number or quantity)," then click on the bubble with a + sign titled "more example sentences.")
Second, the verb to amount [to] already implies the noun "sum."
That is, the verb amount to means "to come to be (the total) when added together."
→ Losses amounted to over 10 million dollars. See here.
THE OPTIONS
Quote:
• verb tense error
→ The present tense verb amounts is incorrect.
The nonunderlined portion states that "sales were down."
The year at issue is 2002: twenty years ago.
We need simple past tense.
• redundancy
→ As I noted above (see the definition), the verb amount to already implies sum.
Eliminate A
Quote:
• verb tense error
→ Same problem as that in option A; the sentence does not warrant a present tense verb.
Eliminate B
Quote:
• I do not see any errors
• The simple past tense verb "amounted to" is correct.
• In usage terms, it is perfectly acceptable to say that romance book sales "amounted to over half of all sales."
Other verbs such as "to cost" and "to total" are similar.
-- The art supplies cost over $1,000.
KEEP
Quote:
• quantifier error: we do not say "larger than 50 percent."
→ larger almost always refers to size.
An aardvark is larger than an ant.
→ Sometimes we can use larger with "pure numbers."
The ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is π, which is slightly larger than 3.
→ But real world numbers (temperatures, percentages, sums) never take larger.
Wrong: The average temperature in the tropics is larger than that in the Arctic.
Eliminate D
Quote:
• redundancy: as in option A, "amounted to" already implies a sum.
Eliminate E
The best answer is C.
25 Mar 2022, 01:53
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Although the number of romance novels published by Harlequin Enterprises in 2002 amounts to a sum greater than 50 percent of all the romance titles published that year, the company's sales were still down due to high growth in other genres of women's fiction.
A) amounts to a sum greater than Incorrect
B) amounts to greater than Incorrect
C) amounted to over Incorrect
D) amounted to larger than Incorrect
E) amounted to a sum greater than Correct
Whole sentence is in past form, so eliminate present tense A & B
In C & D - over and larger than cant go properly with percent
last choice E - correct
A) amounts to a sum greater than Incorrect
B) amounts to greater than Incorrect
C) amounted to over Incorrect
D) amounted to larger than Incorrect
E) amounted to a sum greater than Correct
Whole sentence is in past form, so eliminate present tense A & B
In C & D - over and larger than cant go properly with percent
last choice E - correct
