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Cumberland Mine - The administration has increased the

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TheChakra
 Post subject: Cumberland Mine - The administration has increased the
 Post Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 7:34 am 
The administration has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their campaign to protect miners.
has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their
have increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their
has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of its
has increased the amount of fines for mining safety violations as part of its
have increased the amount of fines for mining safety violations as part of their
Here is the explanation for not choosing 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.

When you get a ticket, the question is - "How much is the fine?", right? You don't say "How many is the fine"?

The way I read it, the admin has increased the ($) amount of fines (per violation). The correct answer (c) literally means that if there were 10 fines earlier, the administration has increased that to 20. Please help me understand why my interpretation is wrong?
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StaceyKoprince
 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:58 pm 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 6064
Location: San Francisco
In the real world, an administrator could increase the dollar amount of a fine. The administrator could also expand the pool of fines from, say, 10 to 20 (that is, there are now more violations that can result in fines).

The original sentence says "increased the number of fines." It doesn't mention dollar amount. So this sentence is not talking about the cost of the fine. It's talking about the number of different fines that some mine could incur.

Make sure you don't read into the sentence something that isn't there. I agree that when we talk about fines we usually talk more about the money - but this sentence doesn't say anything about money or cost.

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Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT
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imtrying
 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:24 pm 
I disagree with the official explanation.

The number of fines should be determined by the number of violations. A safety campaign cannot increase the number of violations, not to mention the number of fines imposed upon detection these violations.

Instead, the campaign can either make a more stringent definition of violations thereby detecting more violations, or increase the amount of fines for each citation. So, saying 'increased the number of fines' feels unnatural.
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DWG
 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 4:51 pm 
I too got burned by this one and chose "amount" rather than "number of"

While I understand the OA's explanation, there are numerous instances where it works the other way around -- when a question implies a quantity is "countable" when in fact it is not and the correct answer calls for rectifying this discrepancy.
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esledge
 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:54 pm 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 901
Location: St. Louis, MO
Quote:
I disagree with the official explanation.

The number of fines should be determined by the number of violations. A safety campaign cannot increase the number of violations, not to mention the number of fines imposed upon detection these violations.

Instead, the campaign can either make a more stringent definition of violations thereby detecting more violations, or increase the amount of fines for each citation. So, saying 'increased the number of fines' feels unnatural.

The number of fines is determined by the number of violations AND the level of enforcement! It is possible that the number of violations stays the same, but the administration finally got serious about enforcement so the number of fines increased.

In any case, while this may be a good debate for a CR question, it is definitely overthinking for an SC question.

For SC, stick to the splits and the rules. When in doubt, don't rewrite the sentence to your liking, but pick the least risky choice:
(1) Split between "the number of" and "the amount of"--> this screams countable (number) vs. uncountable (amount)
(2) All choices have the same object of the preposition: "fines"--> Is this countable or uncountable?
(3) Can fines be countable? 1 fine, 2 fines, 3 fines, etc. Yes, even if that is not how you would say it.

Rule of thumb: If a noun is plural, that is the GMAT's way of telling you it is countable. You can't have plural (two or more) of something without being able to count at least 2 of those things!

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Emily Sledge
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ManhattanGMAT
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