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OG10 verbal problem qn-251

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OG10 verbal problem qn-251

by kishokbabu » Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:41 am
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

For the above sentence the correct answer is A, but i am confused because the comparison greater than seems to be incomplete. It compares the numbers of birds to the five times greater than what?

The answer choice B states that more than, the comparison greater than and more than seems to be correct.

Kindly clarify my doubt, why answer choice B is wrong and in answer choice A whether the comparison is made proper.
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by kooladitya01 » Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:38 am
Please refer to this..

https://www.beatthegmat.com/og-10-qs-251-t10581.html
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by Mike@Magoosh » Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:49 am
Hi, there. I'm happy to help with this! :)

First of all, answer choice A is indeed correct, and the comparison is complete. When we are comparing two different individuals, we have to identify both --- "A is greater than B". Here, the comparison is the same individual (here, the gyrfalcon) at two different times -- (a) now, vs. (b) some time in the past when DDT was used.

To be hyper-explicit, one could say:

The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than what its numbers were when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's.

but that is usually considered too wordy, so the red words are dropped --- they are implied by the clause beginning with "when".

Choice A is perfectly grammatically correct, with a complete comparison, so it's correct.

As for Choice B . . .

Technically, if you are discussing actual numbers, you should used "greater than" ---- 37 is greater than 24. My age is greater than the age of that teenager.

Use "more than" when you are discussing the quantity of object --- "Will the team score more points during this inning/quarter/period?", "Only one US President served for more than 8 years."

If we were counting gyrfalcons, we could say "there are more gyrfalcons now than when . . ."

Instead, we are talking about the pure number: "its numbers are now five times greater than when . . ."

Does that make sense? Please let me know if you have any questions about anything I have said.

Mike :-)
Magoosh GMAT Instructor
https://gmat.magoosh.com/
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