1# the turth is simple: this question is really from the GMATPrep test 2(i have seen it in the software), but there is a same one in OG10, #251. so you know what the answer key refers to.

2# some guys put the quetion with number, so we may think it is not a GMATPrep problem since GMATPrep problems do not have a number. but this deducing may just reflect part of turth. some students,in order to beat all the problems in GMATPrep, decode the software(i don't whether the bahavior is illigal), and then GMATPrep problems have a number and a code.
as well as taking the test in GMATPrep, i also spend some of my time to work out the GMAT questions in the decoded material(unlike a collection, it is really free of any error and typo; actually i have put several posts to correct the errors and typos in threads of these forum)
as to this question: the number is 146 and the code is (32521-!-item-!-188; #058&007141).

stephen!

Hi Ron/Stacey

I know this is an old thread but i am sorry i cant keep my hands off it.

I read your above explanation then applied the same to the official answer but it did not make sense either.Please correct me

The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction;
its numbers are now five times
greater than
its numbers are -->(This should be were right?) when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970’s.

krishnakumarhod, you're right that the OA doesn't fit the general rule for such cases.

When I first saw this question, I didn't much like a couple of features of A, but they seemed more the sort of errors associated with wrong answers than the sort really dispositive, so I worked from other splits to eliminate B-E.

I would have preferred "its number are fives times greater now than when," because then only the times "now" and "when" would be compared. But we have to work with what they give us.

This is OG 10 ques no 251

Thanks Tinks, a couple of other users also pointed this out.

Hi Ron,
Sorry for pulling out an old thread. You said above that greater > more, this makes me think, what about Higher would Higher have preference over greater or more?

Also what would be the preference for lower, less, fewer?

this is highly idiomatic and absolutely impossible to generalize.

there are some words to which one or the other just can't be applied. (for example, a person can have “greater strength” but not “higher strength”.)
there are other words for which the two give substantially different meanings. (for instance, “a greater power” would most likely refer to a worldly power such as a national or corporate authority, while “higher power” usually refers to some sort of divine being.)
etc.
unfortunately, like other idioms, this is the kind of thing that needs to be learned on a case-by-case basis.



"fewer" is for countable nouns. "less" is for uncountable nouns. "lower" is generally used either for physical heights (e.g., a lower elevation) or for numerical quantities (e.g., a lower score).

in general, this forum is not the best place on the internet for questions as general as this one; this forum is mostly intended for specific questions that are directly related to gmat problems.
for a question as general as this one, you can simply google a search term such as "less vs fewer" and find about 100000 different results that explain the topic in much greater detail than we could here.

Ron/Stacey
In E extinction, now with numbers five times greater than

can "now" be used as a modifier..If yes then what would it modify???
Someone here posted that now is prepositional modifier and would modify extinction

[/quote]

in above sentence.

why "it" in C is wrong?, why "that" in B is correct, pls, help explain

in above sentence.

why "it" in C is wrong?, why "that" in B is correct, pls, help explain[/quote]

it is practically certain that the answer to your question is contained in the following thread:
if-current-trends-continue-by-the-year-2010-carbon-emission-t1901.html

I do not understand why choice e) is wrong

if you're going to use "now" + some phrase as a modifier, then "now" must accurately modify the action and timeframe of the preceding clause.
e.g.
James has expanded the scope of his job search, now looking in Malaysia and Thailand as well as in Singapore
--> this sentence is correct, because "now looking in..." actually modifies (describes) the way in which james "has expanded his search".

here, now with numbers five times greater than does NOT modify the idea of "surviving a close brush with extinction"; instead, it is a much later situation, far removed from (and in considerable contrast to) the near-extinction. therefore, a modifier is inappropriate here; a separate clause, written in a different tense (as in the correct answer), is a better solution.

Thanks Ron !

sure.

hi ron ,
as per your explanation the first two sentences are wrong .following is the reason that you gave :


now my question is what if the above explanation is applied to the following sentence :


plz explain why if the above rule (your explaination ) is applied ,then parallel construction is not disturbed ?
thanks