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Number comparison

by amkohl » Tue May 27, 2014 5:13 am
Hi Folks,

I have been looking for a correct answer to below questions along with the explanations. But, ,I could not find a concrete answer as answers and explanations vary.

BTG Experts please help me out in getting the correct answer along with explanations

1. The dancing doll line sold slightly more than $3.5 million worth of toys last year, forty percent more than the Tenny Tiny Trucks line did and nearly three times as much as the Basic Blocks line's sales.

A) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line did and nearly three times as much as the Basic Blocks line's sales
B) the Teeny Tiny Trucks did and nearly three times what the Basic Block's sales were
C) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line sold and nearly three times as much as Basic Block's sales
D) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line and nearly three times more than Basic Block's sales
E) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line and nearly three times more than the Basic Blocks line

2. 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

In above questions, I would like to understand which one of the usage is correct - "three times...more than" or "three times...as much as" or "three times...greater than"


Thanks for the help
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by AnjaliOberoi » Tue May 27, 2014 7:36 am
A. extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than - correct
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
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by AnjaliOberoi » Tue May 27, 2014 7:42 am
Adding some more comments

Usage of Five fold is wrong.
Since original question mentions "five times greater" so we should use this only

eg:- Father's age is five fold of son's age means that if son's age is X, then father's age will be 5x.
Father's age is five times greater than son's age means that if son's age is X, then father's age will become X+5X.

Hope this helps.
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by aditya8062 » Tue May 27, 2014 8:01 am
In above questions, I would like to understand which one of the usage is correct - "three times...more than" or "three times...as much as" or "three times...greater than"
all three are correct and i don't think any of these is wrong per se

three times more than = four times as much as
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by AnjaliOberoi » Tue May 27, 2014 8:06 am
A) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line did and nearly three times as much as the Basic Blocks line's sales - correct comparision
B) the Teeny Tiny Trucks did and nearly three times what the Basic Block's sales were - awkward construction
C) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line sold and nearly three times as much as Basic Block's sales-Wrong comparision
D) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line and nearly three times more than Basic Block's sales - Wrong comparision
E) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line and nearly three times more than the Basic Blocks line- Wrong comparision


In the question 2, Five times greater is preferred over five time more because of meaning. Hope the below mention thread can help you in understanding the concept
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/gre ... t6858.html

To clarify the use of more than and as much as, I am sharing an example below:
My father has three times more money than my mother - " means the father has 400 dollars"
My father has three times as much money as my mother- "means the father has 300 dollars"
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by aditya8062 » Tue May 27, 2014 8:12 am
ANJALI wrote :
A) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line did and nearly three times as much as the Basic Blocks line's sales - correct comparision
B) the Teeny Tiny Trucks did and nearly three times what the Basic Block's sales were - awkward construction
C) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line sold and nearly three times as much as Basic Block's sales-Wrong comparision
D) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line and nearly three times more than Basic Block's sales - Wrong comparision
E) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line and nearly three times more than the Basic Blocks line- Wrong comparision
this analysis is not correct !!
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by aditya8062 » Tue May 27, 2014 8:20 am
The dancing doll line sold slightly more than $3.5 million worth of toys last year, forty percent more than the Tenny Tiny Trucks line did and nearly three times as much as the Basic Blocks line's sales.

A) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line did and nearly three times as much as the Basic Blocks line's sales
B) the Teeny Tiny Trucks did and nearly three times what the Basic Block's sales were
C) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line sold and nearly three times as much as Basic Block's sales
D) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line and nearly three times more than Basic Block's sales
E) the Teeny Tiny Trucks line and nearly three times more than the Basic Blocks line

here the make and break point is not just comparison but PARALLELISM across "and" in the construction after comma
for this reason E is the only possible answer

if my explanation is not clear tell me and i will elaborate.
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by AnjaliOberoi » Tue May 27, 2014 8:27 am
Hi Aditya,

Can you please elaborate.

IMO, In E - i feel that dancing doll line sales are wrongly compared with Teeny Tiny Trucks line and Basic Blocks line. The correct comparision should be between the sales of all three..isn't so??
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by aditya8062 » Tue May 27, 2014 9:14 am
AnjaliOberoi wrote:Hi Aditya,

Can you please elaborate.

IMO, In E - i feel that dancing doll line sales are wrongly compared with Teeny Tiny Trucks line and Basic Blocks line. The correct comparision should be between the sales of all three..isn't so??
no that is not case
in option E we have ellipses as follows :
E says : The dancing doll line sold slightly more than $3.5 million worth of toys last year, forty percent more than the Teeny Tiny Trucks line and nearly three times more than the Basic Blocks line

IMPLIED MEANING :The dancing doll line sold slightly more than $3.5 million worth of toys last year, forty percent more than the Teeny Tiny Trucks line[SOLD] and nearly three times more than the Basic Blocks line [SOLD]
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by amkohl » Tue May 27, 2014 9:33 am
Hi Anjali/Aditya,

Thanks for the reply.

The reason why I posted these two questions is to understand the usage of "greater than.." vs. "more than..".

In #1, I am not really convinced that choice E is the correct answer just because of parallelism. Reasons are -
a) In MGMAT strategy guide for SC (refer chapter 13 - Numbers in Comparisons section), it is mentioned that to relate the quantities by multiplication, use "times" and "as ...as" together.
Also mentioned to avoid the usage of "times...greater than/older than"

b) If you look into question #2, we eliminated option B which uses "five times more than"

Any idea why there is such dissimilarity in applying the same concept in these two questions. Please let me know if anything that I might have missed out?

Thanks for the help
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