According to a study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Adva

Question

According to a study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, companies in the United States are providing job training and general education for nearly eight million people, about equivalent to the enrollment of the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.

(A) equivalent to the enrollment of
(B) the equivalent of those enrolled in
(C) equal to those who are enrolled in
(D) as many as the enrollment of
(E) as many as are enrolled in

OA : E

P.S: I got this one but need some SOLID reason to know why OA is the most preferred to other choices ?

GMATGuruNY · Answer

According to a study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, companies in the United States are providing job training and general education for nearly eight million people, about equivalent to the enrollment of the nation’s four-year colleges and universities.
(A) equivalent to the enrollment of
(B) the equivalent of those enrolled in
(C) equal to those who are enrolled in
(D) as many as the enrollment of
(E) as many as are enrolled in

In A and B, equivalent is the wrong word. EQUIVALENT means equal in value. Eight million people cannot be equal in value. Eliminate A and B.

In C, eight million PEOPLE cannot be equal. A NUMBER can be equal; the people themselves cannot. Eliminate C.

In D, an enrollment cannot be MANY. Many can refer only to a noun that is countable. An enrollment is an AMOUNT -- a non-countable noun. Eliminate D.

The correct answer is E.

For more on the use of equivalent, check my post here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/equivalent-o ... 98380.html

RBBmba@2014 · Answer

GMATGuruNY wrote:According to a study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, companies in the United States are providing job training and general education for nearly eight million people, about equivalent to the enrollment of the nation’s four-year colleges and universities. (A) equivalent to the enrollment of (B) the equivalent of those enrolled in (C) equal to those who are enrolled in (D) as many as the enrollment of (E) as many as are enrolled in In D, an enrollment cannot be MANY. Many can refer only to a noun that is countable. An enrollment is an AMOUNT -- a non-countable noun. Eliminate D. I thought enrollment could be both countable & uncountable NOUN. The Class has an enrollment of 100 students. - Isn't enrollment here a countable NOUN ? P.S: Regardless, I've NO issues in understanding why D is wrong.

GMATGuruNY · Answer

RBBmba@2014 wrote:GMATGuruNY wrote: In D, an enrollment cannot be MANY. Many can refer only to a noun that is countable. An enrollment is an AMOUNT -- a non-countable noun. Eliminate D. I thought enrollment could be both countable & uncountable NOUN. A COLLECTIVE NOUN is a noun that denotes a GROUP: the group, the audience, etc. many cannot serve to refer to a collective noun. Incorrect: Group A is as many as Group B. Incorrect: This year's audience was as many as last year's audience. An enrollment is a collective noun. D implies the following: THE ENROLLMENT of the nation's four-year colleges and universities is AS MANY AS eight million people. Since many cannot serve to refer to a collective noun such as the enrollment, eliminate D. The Class has an enrollment of 100 students. - Isn't enrollment here a countable NOUN ? THE STUDENTS themselves are countable, but an enrollment -- a collective noun serving to denote the GROUP of students -- is not. Thus, while many may serve to refer to the students themselves, it cannot serve to describe AN ENROLLMENT of students. Correct: This year's class has as many students as last year's. Incorrect: This year's enrollment is as many as last year's.

RBBmba@2014 · Answer

Mitch - It seems to be little bit confusing to me!

College has 2000 enrollments this year - how it could be wrong. ENROLLMENTs here is PLURAL NOUN, I guess.

Does ENROLLMENTS not refer to the number of people enrolled ? Is that wrong ?

P.S: Also, Oxford dictionary says ENROLLMENT could be countable too. Am I missing something ?

GMATGuruNY · Answer

RBBmba@2014 wrote:Mitch - It seems to be little bit confusing to me!

College has 2000 enrollments this year - how it could be wrong. ENROLLMENTs here is PLURAL NOUN, I guess.

Does ENROLLMENTS not refer to the number of people enrolled ? Is that wrong ?

P.S: Also, Oxford dictionary says ENROLLMENT could be countable too. Am I missing something ?

A word can have more than one meaning.

An enrollment can serves to refer to a PERSON enrolled.
Enrollments are up this year.
Conveyed meaning:
MORE PEOPLE enrolled this year.
In this context, enrollments is a COUNTABLE noun.

An enrollment can also serve to refer to the GROUP of students enrolled.
This year's enrollment is higher than last year's.
Conveyed meaning:
THE GROUP enrolled this year is greater than THE GROUP enrolled last year.
In this context, enrollment is a NON-COUNTABLE noun.

Generally, many must serve to refer to a PLURAL NOUN.
Answer choice D: eight million people, as many as the enrollment...
Implied comparison:
Eight million people are as many as the enrollment [is many].
Here, the many in red cannot serve to refer to the enrollment (singular).

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RBBmba@2014 · Answer

Now it's clear.Much thanks!

Just a quick question - had the the option D been as many as the enrollments of , still I think, it'd have been wrong in spite of ENROLLMENTS being a PLURAL because "enrollments of" refers to the number of people enrolled , a NUMBER that can't be compared with eight million PEOPLE. Right ?

Correct me please if wrong.

RBBmba@2014 · Answer

Mitch - can you please share your quick thoughts on my post just above ?

GMATGuruNY · Answer

RBBmba@2014 wrote:Now it's clear.Much thanks!

Just a quick question - had the the option D been as many as the enrollments of , still I think, it'd have been wrong in spite of ENROLLMENTS being a PLURAL because "enrollments of" refers to the number of people enrolled , a NUMBER that can't be compared with eight million PEOPLE. Right ?

Correct me please if wrong.

I suspect that most readers would construe enrollments as a set of numbers: 50 students enrolled at institution X, 100 students enrolled at institution Y, etc.
Thus, to compare eight million people to enrollments would be to compare human beings to numbers -- an illogical comparison.

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