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

ColumbiaDream · Answer

'Number" is used when something has a clear defined amount associated with it. "Amount" refers to quantity of things that are measured in bulk. Hence it should be " the number" of fines. Not the "amount of fines". 

I think it's C...Am I right?

bkk145 · Answer

D.

A,B,E use "their", which is incorrect. It should be "its".
We are talking about "fines" here and though it is countable, the actual numerical value of "fines" is not countable. In fact, from what I understand, if you deal with any numerical value, you should think not-countable. If you use "number of fines" it sounds like the frequency of fine increase from 2 to 10, for example.

bmwhype2 · Answer

C.

amount = uncountable
number = countable
1 fine, 2 fines, 3 fines, 
therefore, countable.

bkk145 · Answer

Isn't the meaning of the sentence is talking about the actual amount of fine here? Not the frequency? I am confused.

bmwhype2 · Answer

i think on the GMAT they prefer clarity.

i would say  fine amount  instead of amount of fines.

bkk145 · Answer

thanks for the input.
I guess the plural of "fines" is the key here.

subhen · Answer

I would go with D because its is the correct pronoun referring back to administration and amount is correctly used to refer to the fine. The author is talking about increasing the amount of fine and not its frequency.

sidbidus · Answer

'Its' is required here so A,B and E are out.

Out of C and D ..........I choose  (C). 

Both sentence sound correct to me. The difference is in their meaning.

The amount of the fines means the denomination of fines............lets say earlier the fine was for $100 and now it has increased to $200.

whereas C says.

earlier 10 people were fined daily and now 20 are fined.

Since the original sentence mentions number of fines..........so i guess that's the intended meaning and so (C) stands correct.

STVerm · Answer

I vote for 'C' 

D indicates amount of FINES, if it had been "amount of fine" I would have selected option D

s_positive · Answer

I would go with  D. 

Though not clear from the sentence, its always the amount of any fine that is increased. 
Increasing the number of fines is absurd.

To convey this idea, it should rather be 'increasing the number of fine types' or 'increasing the types of fine'.

Wat's the OA??

asaf · Answer

Well guys OA is C.

Assuming C and D are both correct then we need to check the context definition in the original (A). I guess that can help us easily elliminate D.

The administration has increased the number of fines for

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