numbers of for goel mohit

Expert replies

maihuna: Legendary Member; Posts: 1578; Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2008 1:49 amFollowed by: 9 members; Thanked: 82 times; GMAT Score:720

by maihuna » Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:36 am

It is very evident here man, any reports from a department will talk about a number, the number itself can be 500 or 5000...but the number reported by the department will be one, but the number of people to be killed by a virus in some coming time is definetly not a fixed number...

hope i am clear here...

Charged up again to beat the beast

Like this post

hemanth28: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 157; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:05 am; Thanked: 9 times; GMAT Score:680

by hemanth28 » Tue Jun 30, 2009 10:27 am

"numbers of " is not incorrect by itself. "The numbers of" and "A numbers of" is wrong.

I Googled a bit and found below sentence in GMAC website.

"Each test center operates on its own schedule and can accommodate varying numbers of test takers throughout the day."

If a adjective is modifying the numbers ,then i guess the usage is acceptable.

"large numbers of"
"varying numbers of"

-Correct me if i am wrong.

GMAT First take :- 680
Getting the guns ready for second shot !!!
https://beatenbygmat.blocked

Like this post

goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:03 am

hemanth28 wrote:"numbers of " is not incorrect by itself. "The numbers of" and "A numbers of" is wrong.

I Googled a bit and found below sentence in GMAC website.

"Each test center operates on its own schedule and can accommodate varying numbers of test takers throughout the day."

If a adjective is modifying the numbers ,then i guess the usage is acceptable.

"large numbers of"
"varying numbers of"

-Correct me if i am wrong.

Thanks Hemant. It does seem to be correct. But i just checked the OG-11...in it there are couple of places in say RC/CR where GMAT freely uses "numbers of"...

e.g. pessage for Q37 of OG-11, starts with....

"Although numbers of animals in a given region may fluctuate from year to year, the fluctuations are often temporary and, over long periods"

Can you please tell have u seen the rule exception that you mentioned "Adjective + Numbers of"....in SC section....

If not then probably we can make it a rule for SC section atleast

Like this post

gmattarget700: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 67; Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:10 pm; Thanked: 2 times

by gmattarget700 » Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:07 pm

I do not agree that "numbers of" is wrong....
D is the answer...

Moderators/experts,

Can you put this thread to rest by giving the Answer, with governing rule..?

I am new to this site but I feel moderator should pitch in when any thread has got more than X (say, 10) numbers of posts/replies as that should be taken as indicative of the fact that things are not clear....just a suggestion..

Like this post

ketkoag: Legendary Member; Posts: 876; Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:14 am; Thanked: 13 times

Re: numbers of for goel mohit

by ketkoag » Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:02 pm

kanha81 wrote:
ketkoag wrote:
maihuna wrote:New Jersey’s is one of the five highest number of reported cases of Lyme disease in the United States.
(A) New Jersey’s is one of the five highest number of reported
(B) New Jersey’s is one of the five highest numbers in reporting
(C) New Jersey has a report of one of the five highest numbers of
(D) New Jersey has one of the five highest numbers of reported
(E) New Jersey reports one of the five highest number of
IMO D..
E cannot be correct coz "five highest numbers" is the correct statement.
Don't u think "five highest NUMBER" is incorrect? i think it is incorrect.......
Numbers of is almost always wrong on GMAT. Hence [D] is out of contention. Best suited IMO [spoiler][E][/spoiler]

here in this case, D maintains the meaning..
In 'of the' constructions check the word following that construction. Here the phrase 'one of the' tells us that NJ has one out of many(numbers- plural) so it is 'one of the PLURAL'

Hence we require 'numbers' .Eliminate A and E.
i think, here E distorts the meaning as well, coz it says that NJ reports, but it is not clear that NJ has one of the highest cases.

Like this post

GMAT/MBA Expert

Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jul 06, 2009 10:19 am

Received a PM asking me to respond. First, see my post in this thread:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/numbers-of-i ... 39059.html

In that other thread, I said that you can say "the numbers of" in the rare circumstance that you are literally talking about multiple, different numbers. And that's exactly what we're talking about here. Construct a scenario to illustrate:

New Jersey has 10 reported cases
New York has 14 reported cases
Hawaii has 9 reported cases
Maine has 12 reported cases
Michigan has 8 reported cases.

There are five numbers: 8, 9, 10, 12, and 14. If I tell you these are the five highest (of all of the states), then New Jersey's number (10) is among the five highest numbers. Make sense?

Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me

Like this post

maihuna: Legendary Member; Posts: 1578; Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2008 1:49 amFollowed by: 9 members; Thanked: 82 times; GMAT Score:720

by maihuna » Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:18 pm

oa is D

Charged up again to beat the beast

Like this post

mehravikas: Legendary Member; Posts: 1161; Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 2:52 amFollowed by: 1 member; Location: Sydney; Thanked: 23 times

by mehravikas » Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:22 pm

"numbers of" is not incorrect on the GMAT. If you use numbers of in the following way, then it is incorrect:

a numbers of....., the numbers of.........

But let's say you have - Each test center has its own schedule of GMAT test dates and accommodates a varying numbers of students.

the above sentence is grammatically correct !!

The answer to the question posted by maihuna should be D.

kanha81 wrote:
ketkoag wrote:
maihuna wrote:New Jerseyï¿½s is one of the five highest number of reported cases of Lyme disease in the United States.
(A) New Jerseyï¿½s is one of the five highest number of reported
(B) New Jerseyï¿½s is one of the five highest numbers in reporting
(C) New Jersey has a report of one of the five highest numbers of
(D) New Jersey has one of the five highest numbers of reported
(E) New Jersey reports one of the five highest number of
IMO D..
E cannot be correct coz "five highest numbers" is the correct statement.
Don't u think "five highest NUMBER" is incorrect? i think it is incorrect.......
Numbers of is almost always wrong on GMAT. Hence [D] is out of contention. Best suited IMO [spoiler][E][/spoiler]

Like this post

GMAT/MBA Expert

Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:48 am

But let's say you have - Each test center has its own schedule of GMAT test dates and accommodates a varying numbers of students.

Not quite. It would be correct to say "accommodates varying numbers of students" but not "accommodates a varying numbers of students."

Like this post

mehravikas: Legendary Member; Posts: 1161; Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 2:52 amFollowed by: 1 member; Location: Sydney; Thanked: 23 times

by mehravikas » Thu Jan 14, 2010 12:00 pm

Thanks Stacey for pointing out the mistake. It was a typo

"a numbers" is definitely incorrect but "numbers" can be used in GMAT sentences. Correct?

Stacey Koprince wrote:
But let's say you have - Each test center has its own schedule of GMAT test dates and accommodates a varying numbers of students.
Not quite. It would be correct to say "accommodates varying numbers of students" but not "accommodates a varying numbers of students."

Like this post

GMAT/MBA Expert

Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Thu Jan 14, 2010 12:12 pm

yes.

Like this post

mmslf75: Legendary Member; Posts: 503; Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:53 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 31 times

by mmslf75 » Fri Jan 15, 2010 7:17 am

Stacey Koprince wrote:yes.

thanks stacey !!

Like this post

er_priyankajolly: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 76; Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 1:37 am

by er_priyankajolly » Mon Jun 28, 2010 9:37 am

Can anyone explain whats wrong with E option?

Had it been
New Jersey reports one of the five highest numbers of
Then would it be correct?

Like this post

GMAT/MBA Expert

Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:13 pm

Because we're actually talking about a set of numbers here, we do want to say "numbers," not "number," yes. E also changed the meaning of the sentence, though. There are "reported cases" of Lyme disease - the cases that actually get reported to the authorities - and that number is presumably smaller than the actual number of cases, because some people don't go to the doctor or get misdiagnosed or whatever.

The original sentence talks about the "reported cases" and tells us that NJ is high on the list of states in terms of reported cases. Option E mentions only the "cases" - meaning the actual number of cases. Perhaps NJ just has a really good reporting mechanism, and other states have a lot more cases but they don't get reported properly or something... we don't know that NJ actually is in the top 5 in terms of actual total cases - only reported cases.

Like this post

Post new topic Locked

GMAT Course Reviews

559 reviews

1168 reviews

431 reviews

359 reviews

147 reviews

5/5

5 Star (560 Reviews)

"Target Test Prep is the closest to the official version of the GMAT exam, about 99% accuracy in terms of the quality and quantity of information. The course has excellently created singular sets of focused lessons and tests for every possible topic that one could come across in the official GMAT exam."

"The TTP course maximizes the efficiency of the time you spend studying. It will take time and effort but I could almost guarantee that if you complete the course exactly as it is laid out you will get an amazing score. They also have a very responsive team willing to help with any questions you might have."

"TTP has two things that I think no other test prep company offers: A teaching approach that reinforces understanding and an attitude that will give you the mental preparedness needed to succeed on the test. TTP gives you a deep understanding of the concept you need to know while teaching you how to think."

Write a Review