Use of "most" , "some" in CR questions

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Use of "most" , "some" in CR questions

by hellother » Sun Aug 19, 2012 1:43 am
Hi,
Not a particular GMAT. But is it ok to interchange "most" and "some" in inference CR questions?

For example, if the stimulus contains the following sentence :

" MANY/MOST universities grant scholarship awards to their students "
and the options contains the following sentence :

" SOME universities grant scholarship awards to their students "

Is this a correct inference ?
Pls reply...
Thanks in advance

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by avik.ch » Tue Aug 21, 2012 11:21 pm
hellother wrote:Hi,
Not a particular GMAT. But is it ok to interchange "most" and "some" in inference CR questions?

For example, if the stimulus contains the following sentence :

" MANY/MOST universities grant scholarship awards to their students "
and the options contains the following sentence :

" SOME universities grant scholarship awards to their students "

Is this a correct inference ?
Pls reply...
Thanks in advance
Yes, it is correct !!

most > many.

and, "some" is generally used to refer a quatity smaller than "many".


so this is a correct inference.

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by KapTeacherEli » Wed Aug 22, 2012 11:59 am
Hi avik.ch,

For formal inferences and proper logic:

"Some" means "At least one"

"Many" means "At least two"

"Most" means "More than half"

Note that many GMAT arguments are written in a more natural, where "many" will mean "quite a few." But it still doesn't meant the same as "most." So if "most" universities accept the GRE, you can say that "many" or "some" accept the GRE, but if "some" universities accept the GRE, you cannot say that "many" or "most" do without further information.

I hope this clears things up!
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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