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OG-10, Qs - 251 ...

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OG-10, Qs - 251 ...

by camitava » Thu May 08, 2008 12:48 am
251. The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five
times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's. .
(A) extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than
(B) extinction; its numbers are now five times more than
(C) extinction, their numbers now fivefold what they were
(D) extinction, now with fivefold the numbers they had
(E) extinction, now with numbers five times greater than

Guys, tell me what will be the correct answer? I am stuck ... Help me ...
Correct me If I am wrong


Regards,

Amitava
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Re: OG-10, Qs - 251 ...

by lunarpower » Thu May 08, 2008 1:22 am
camitava wrote:251. The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five
times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's. .
(A) extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than
(B) extinction; its numbers are now five times more than
(C) extinction, their numbers now fivefold what they were
(D) extinction, now with fivefold the numbers they had
(E) extinction, now with numbers five times greater than

Guys, tell me what will be the correct answer? I am stuck ... Help me ...
first, realize that 'the gyrfalcon' is singular, and therefore requires the singular pronoun 'its'. this kills choices c and d.

you need to say greater than, which is a correct description. if you say the numbers are more, that seems to carry the implication that there are somehow 'more numbers' than there were previously. that kills b, and gets you down to a and e.

choice a is better than choice e, because it features a clear temporal shift, signalled by the verb tenses: from the present perfect has survived, indicating the fact that the survival is an ongoing process that has continued into the present, to the simple present are, which indicates that those are the numbers right now. in choice e, the temporal shift is nowhere near as clear.
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by camitava » Thu May 08, 2008 1:51 am
Ron, in my attempt I got confused with the option A and B. Ron, in B, its refers to GYRFALCON itself. I failed to understand the difference between GREATER THAN and MORE THAN. In ur last explanation, I also failed to understand why u rejected option B. Is it something like -
A is more than half of B. -> A > B/2. So using MORE, is it implied that there will be required some more comparison criteria? Are u getting me? Because if we go with the example I provided above and the OG question, then we can say that the question lacks the comparison criteria like the bold-lettered phrase of my example. Is it so? Can u pls explain in detail? Again I am saying that I failed to distinguish the difference between the phrases - GREATER THAN and MORE THAN.
Help me, man!
Correct me If I am wrong


Regards,

Amitava
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by lunarpower » Thu May 08, 2008 3:25 am
camitava wrote:Ron, in my attempt I got confused with the option A and B. Ron, in B, its refers to GYRFALCON itself. I failed to understand the difference between GREATER THAN and MORE THAN. In ur last explanation, I also failed to understand why u rejected option B. Is it something like -
A is more than half of B. -> A > B/2. So using MORE, is it implied that there will be required some more comparison criteria? Are u getting me? Because if we go with the example I provided above and the OG question, then we can say that the question lacks the comparison criteria like the bold-lettered phrase of my example. Is it so? Can u pls explain in detail? Again I am saying that I failed to distinguish the difference between the phrases - GREATER THAN and MORE THAN.
Help me, man!
here's a simplified rule that will work:
in formal written english, if you are talking about an increase in a single statistic, you use GREATER. if you are counting things, and NOT referring to 'the number' or 'the population' or any other single statistic, you use MORE - always as an adjective or adverb:
the population of filipinos is greater than it was 10 years ago
there are more filipinos than there were 10 years ago
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by gurudev » Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:38 am
I Have one doubt, in using the construction "five time greater than". I construe that using five times and "greater or more" at the same time may be taken as redundancy.

Please help me on the above doubt!!!
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by umaa » Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:31 pm
IMO A.
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by kiranlegend » Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:29 am
lunarpower wrote:
camitava wrote:Ron, in my attempt I got confused with the option A and B. Ron, in B, its refers to GYRFALCON itself. I failed to understand the difference between GREATER THAN and MORE THAN. In ur last explanation, I also failed to understand why u rejected option B. Is it something like -
A is more than half of B. -> A > B/2. So using MORE, is it implied that there will be required some more comparison criteria? Are u getting me? Because if we go with the example I provided above and the OG question, then we can say that the question lacks the comparison criteria like the bold-lettered phrase of my example. Is it so? Can u pls explain in detail? Again I am saying that I failed to distinguish the difference between the phrases - GREATER THAN and MORE THAN.
Help me, man!
here's a simplified rule that will work:
in formal written english, if you are talking about an increase in a single statistic, you use GREATER. if you are counting things, and NOT referring to 'the number' or 'the population' or any other single statistic, you use MORE - always as an adjective or adverb:
the population of filipinos is greater than it was 10 years ago
there are more filipinos than there were 10 years ago
hmm.. i read in kaplan book that greater than is appropriate when desfcribng numbers alone but more than should be used when describing the numbers of objects or when making comparions ( greater than one hundred and more than one hundred fish).. in that sense.. here the answer should be B right??

am i missing something, please explain?
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by lunarpower » Fri Aug 01, 2008 3:10 am
gurudev wrote:I Have one doubt, in using the construction "five time greater than". I construe that using five times and "greater or more" at the same time may be taken as redundancy.
not true. in fact, not only is "x is five times greater than y" NOT redundant, its meaning is actually different from that of "x is five times y".

(warning: the discussion that follows is actually more quant-appropriate; for verbal it's sufficient to realize that there's no redundancy and that the meanings are different)

first, consider percentage differences, for which the difference is obvious:
X is 50% of Y --> X is half as big as Y
X is 50% greater than Y --> X is 1.5 times as big as Y
that's a stark contrast; not only are the different, but one implies that X < y while the other implies that X > Y.

now, more pertinent:
X is five times Y, or X is five times as great as Y --> X = 5Y
X is five times greater than Y --> X = Y + 5Y, or X = 6Y
when you say "so-and-so-many times greater than", you're actually referring to a quantity that many times over and above the original quantity, not just a multiple of the original quantity.
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by lunarpower » Fri Aug 01, 2008 3:13 am
kiranlegend wrote:hmm.. i read in kaplan book that greater than is appropriate when desfcribng numbers alone but more than should be used when describing the numbers of objects or when making comparions ( greater than one hundred and more than one hundred fish).. in that sense.. here the answer should be B right??

am i missing something, please explain?
when the debate gets to a point like this, there's only one way to resolve the issue. fortunately, it's very simple. here it is:

if source X (which is not the official guide) disagrees with the official line on the issue, then the official problem wins.

here, kaplan is explicitly at odds with gmatprep. you are playing on gmatprep's playground, so gmatprep makes the rules.
act accordingly.
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by kiranlegend » Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:29 am
thanks Ron:)

that sounds reasonable.
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by gurudev » Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:23 am
Got it Ron!!

Thanks a ton.
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:23 am
lunarpower wrote:
camitava wrote:Ron, in my attempt I got confused with the option A and B. Ron, in B, its refers to GYRFALCON itself. I failed to understand the difference between GREATER THAN and MORE THAN. In ur last explanation, I also failed to understand why u rejected option B. Is it something like -
A is more than half of B. -> A > B/2. So using MORE, is it implied that there will be required some more comparison criteria? Are u getting me? Because if we go with the example I provided above and the OG question, then we can say that the question lacks the comparison criteria like the bold-lettered phrase of my example. Is it so? Can u pls explain in detail? Again I am saying that I failed to distinguish the difference between the phrases - GREATER THAN and MORE THAN.
Help me, man!
here's a simplified rule that will work:
in formal written english, if you are talking about an increase in a single statistic, you use GREATER. if you are counting things, and NOT referring to 'the number' or 'the population' or any other single statistic, you use MORE - always as an adjective or adverb:
the population of filipinos is greater than it was 10 years ago
there are more filipinos than there were 10 years ago
Reopening a bit old thread...

As per above mentioned by Ron, Greater is used for increase in single statistic...

But Manhattan book says that

" Increase express the change of one thing over time. Greater signal a comparison between two things"

example given by Manhattan is:

"The price of silver increased by ten dollars"
"The price of silver is greater than the price of copper"

I am really confused....can some one please tell the rules that govern

"More Than" Vs "Greater than"
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by goelmohit2002 » Tue Sep 29, 2009 12:00 pm
goelmohit2002 wrote: As per above mentioned by Ron, Greater is used for increase in single statistic...

But Manhattan book says that

" Increase express the change of one thing over time. Greater signal a comparison between two things"

example given by Manhattan is:

"The price of silver increased by ten dollars"
"The price of silver is greater than the price of copper"

I am really confused....can some one please tell the rules that govern

"More Than" Vs "Greater than"
Hi Ron,

Can you please help clear this doubt ?

Many Thanks in advance
Mohit
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by andy123 » Sat Oct 03, 2009 7:56 am
how do we determine if GYRAFALCON is singular or PLURAL ???

Please help.
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by mmslf75 » Fri Jan 08, 2010 8:14 am
lunarpower wrote:
kiranlegend wrote:hmm.. i read in kaplan book that greater than is appropriate when desfcribng numbers alone but more than should be used when describing the numbers of objects or when making comparions ( greater than one hundred and more than one hundred fish).. in that sense.. here the answer should be B right??

am i missing something, please explain?
when the debate gets to a point like this, there's only one way to resolve the issue. fortunately, it's very simple. here it is:

if source X (which is not the official guide) disagrees with the official line on the issue, then the official problem wins.

here, kaplan is explicitly at odds with gmatprep. you are playing on gmatprep's playground, so gmatprep makes the rules.
act accordingly.

Oh, no wonder this concept confounded me..
I am clear now with GREATER and MORE usage !!
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