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700+ 1000 chemicals

by challenger63 » Tue Feb 12, 2013 7:32 pm
Of the 1,000 chemicals in coffee, less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats.

A. less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory
rats
B. most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats, fewer than thirty have been tested
C. most of the less than thirty tested produced cancer in laboratory rats
D. less than thirty of which have been tested, most of them produce cancer in laboratory rats
E. fewer than thirty have been tested, and most of these produce cancer in
laboratory rats

Source: Master the GMAT book
OA after discussion
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by hemant_rajput » Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:25 am
challenger63 wrote:Of the 1,000 chemicals in coffee, less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats.

A. less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory
rats
B. most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats, fewer than thirty have been tested
C. most of the less than thirty tested produced cancer in laboratory rats
D. less than thirty of which have been tested, most of them produce cancer in laboratory rats
E. fewer than thirty have been tested, and most of these produce cancer in
laboratory rats

Source: Master the GMAT book
OA after discussion
"Most of" is wrong idiom over here. So B and C are out. Now D has awkward construction because of "of which", so out. Now between A and E less is the correct adjective . So my vote is for A.


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by vishalbpr » Wed Feb 13, 2013 1:23 am
challenger63 wrote:Of the 1,000 chemicals in coffee, less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats.

A. less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory
rats
B. most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats, fewer than thirty have been tested
C. most of the less than thirty tested produced cancer in laboratory rats
D. less than thirty of which have been tested, most of them produce cancer in laboratory rats
E. fewer than thirty have been tested, and most of these produce cancer in
laboratory rats

Source: Master the GMAT book
OA after discussion
A. less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats
-> Less must not there.
B. most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats, fewer than thirty have been tested
-> when only 30 are tested, then these only can produce cancer in rats.
C. most of the less than thirty tested produced cancer in laboratory rats
-> Less should not be used with uncountable nouns.
D. less than thirty of which have been tested, most of them produce cancer in laboratory rats
-> Less should not be used with uncountable nouns.
E. fewer than thirty have been tested, and most of these produce cancer in
laboratory rats
-> Correct.
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by aditya8062 » Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:26 am
Of the 1,000 chemicals in coffee, less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats.

A. less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory
rats
B. most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats, fewer than thirty have been tested
C. most of the less than thirty tested produced cancer in laboratory rats
D. less than thirty of which have been tested, most of them produce cancer in laboratory rats
E. fewer than thirty have been tested, and most of these produce cancer in
laboratory rats
oki here is my take : i feel the answer should be B
A is wrong for using "less than"
C is wrong for "less than "
D is wrong for "less than"
E is wrong for "these produce"
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by wondering_too » Tue Feb 19, 2013 6:00 am
For the first time I'll try to give my explanation.

A. less than thirty have been tested, most of which produce cancer in laboratory
rats.
"less than" can not be used with countable nouns (chemicals). "fewer than thirty" is needed.
B. most of which produce cancer in laboratory rats, fewer than thirty have been tested
"most of which" modifies 'cofee', not chemicals. Besides, it changes the meaning of the sentence (most of the thirty tested produce cancer => most of 1000 produce cancer)
C. most of the less than thirty tested produced cancer in laboratory rats
"less than". The same error as in 'A'.
D. less than thirty of which have been tested, most of them produce cancer in laboratory rats
"less than". The same error as in 'A'. Two clauses are independent, we should use semicolon here
E. fewer than thirty have been tested, and most of these produce cancer in
laboratory rats
Correct. "Fewer than" is used, the clauses are conjugated with ", and", and "most of these " is also ok
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by aditya8062 » Tue Feb 19, 2013 6:39 am
@wondering ....i find ur interpretation of E slightly faulty :for the following reason .in gmat u cannot use "these" as noun in other words its wrong to say "most of these produce .."
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by wondering_too » Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:51 am
aditya8062, "most of them" really makes more sence.

According to manhattan guide, you are right in this point.

On the second thought, I think we can be wrong about 'less than' (for example if we talk about percantage, it is ok to say that new percentage of something is LESS than old percentage). Can the same hold for numbers? Seems, that no. Manhattan SC Guide states definitely that "fewer than 10 items" is right. Not "less".

Confused.
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by aditya8062 » Tue Feb 19, 2013 7:28 pm
@wondering yeah that right . i was talking of this very stuff which makes B my hot favorite
on ur second point as to what we sud have here ,i think we need to appreciate that there isisnt any number here . all we have are 1000 chemicals ...which is very much countable and hence we need to use "fewer"
thanks and regards
aditya
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by sana.noor » Wed Feb 20, 2013 10:27 am
for me its B
less is used for uncountable things, So A, c and d are out.
Of the 1,000 chemicals in coffee, most of which produce (plural verb after which refer to plural noun chemicals) cancer in laboratory rats, fewer than thirty have been tested.----> it means that most of the 1000 chemicals produce cancer but to prove this fewer than 30 chemcials have been tested.
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by vishalbpr » Thu Feb 21, 2013 6:00 am
sana.noor wrote:for me its B
less is used for uncountable things, So A, c and d are out.
Of the 1,000 chemicals in coffee, most of which produce (plural verb after which refer to plural noun chemicals) cancer in laboratory rats, fewer than thirty have been tested.----> it means that most of the 1000 chemicals produce cancer but to prove this fewer than 30 chemcials have been tested.
Cancer can be tested in Laboratory rats only after tests are performed. So should E not be more clear...

There are 1000 chemicals, but only 30 were tested which caused cancer in laboratory rats.
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by sana.noor » Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:04 am
according to the Master GMAT the right answer is E but i still want an expert explanation.
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by aditya8062 » Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:34 am
sana.noor wrote:according to the Master GMAT the right answer is E but i still want an expert explanation.
woops !! to me E is big wrong .i have seen plenty of instances where "these" as stand alone nouns are big no in gmat
i can say "these chemical produce ....
but i cannot say "these produce ..."
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by sana.noor » Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:54 am
aditya i agree with you but i checked this question and according to the Master Gmat book the right answer is E. i am waiting for an expert comment.
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by Tommy Wallach » Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:06 pm
Hey All,

Could somebody post the text from my company that you feel conflicts with this question? I'm just interested to see exactly what we say about it, but I'm not sure where people are drawing from. Anyway, whatever your rules are, (E) is the best answer here, even if it isn't realistic in terms of what you'd see on the real GMAT.

"Less" kills off (A), (C), and (D), so you're left with (B) and (E).

(B) If only 30 have been tested, how would we know if most of the 1,000 kill rats? That's totally illogical.

(E) Well, the "these" clearly means "these [thirty chemicals]," so the meaning is nice and clear. Correct.

See what I mean? So I'd still pick (E) here no matter what, because meaning is more important than some rule about a little GMAT preference. That being said, this is the danger of using weird-ass books: Master the GMAT. Platinum GMAT. SupermanGMAT. GmatForDummies. Just stick with the classics, please!

-t
Tommy Wallach, Company Expert
ManhattanGMAT

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