In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than those of the 1978 harvest.

A: less than those of the 1978 harvest.
B: less than the 1978 harvest.
C: less than 1978.
D: fewer than 1978.
E: less than that of India's 1978 harvest.

In E, that seems to refer to production. Thus, that of India's 1978 harvest implies the PRODUCTION of India's HARVEST - an error of redundancy, since the PRODUCTION and the HARVEST are the same thing. Eliminate E.

C and D each seem to compare the rice production to 1978. The PRODUCTION cannot be compared to a YEAR. Eliminate C and D.

In A, those seems to refer to tons, implying that the TONS of the rice production in 1979 are being compared to the TONS of the 1978 harvest. Not the intended meaning. The intention here is to compare the PRODUCTION in one year to the HARVEST in the other. Eliminate A.

The correct answer is B.

Doubt: LESS is used with uncountable nouns and FEWER is used with countable nouns. So why [spoiler]D& E[/spoiler] are incorrect?

Generally:
less serves to refer to any noun that takes a SINGULAR VERB.
fewer serves to refer to any noun that takes a PLURAL VERB.

Normally, expressions of money, weight, time and distance take a SINGULAR VERB.
Five dollars IS a good price.
41 million tons IS equal to 82,000,000,000 pounds.
Twenty minutes IS the amount of time allotted for the first section of the test.
One hundred miles IS not a great distance.

Since 41 million tons takes a singular verb, the correct modifier is not fewer but LESS.

Doubt: LESS is used with uncountable nouns and FEWER is used with countable nouns. So why [spoiler]D& E[/spoiler] are incorrect?

Generally:
less serves to refer to any noun that takes a SINGULAR VERB.
fewer serves to refer to any noun that takes a PLURAL VERB.

Normally, expressions of money, weight, time and distance take a SINGULAR VERB.
Five dollars IS a good price.
41 million tons IS equal to 82,000,000,000 pounds.
Twenty minutes IS the amount of time allotted for the first section of the test.
One hundred miles IS not a great distance.

Since 41 million tons takes a singular verb, the correct modifier is not fewer but LESS.

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Hi GMATGuruNY ,

Thank you so much for your explanation.

What I understood from your explanation is that LESS is used with uncountable nouns and FEWER is used with countable nouns, but in question, which shows weight, time, expression of money, I should use LESS over FEWER with SINGULAR VERB.

Please confirm, if my understanding is correct.

Thanks,

Kavin

Hi GMATGuruNY ,

Please confirm, if my understanding is correct.

Thanks,

Kavin

Needgmat wrote:Hi GMATGuruNY ,

Thank you so much for your explanation.

What I understood from your explanation is that LESS is used with uncountable nouns and FEWER is used with countable nouns, but in question, which shows weight, time, expression of money, I should use LESS over FEWER with SINGULAR VERB.

Please confirm, if my understanding is correct.

Thanks,

Kavin

Your understanding seems correct.

To sum up:
For countable nouns, we use fewer.
For uncountable nouns, we use less.
A noun that takes a singular verb is considered uncountable.
Quantities of weight, time, distance and money take a singular verb and thus are considered uncountable, with the result that we use LESS for these sorts of quantities.

Hi GMATGuruNY ,

Thank you so much for your great explanation.

Thanks,

Kavin