Electricity

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Electricity

by aroon7 » Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:03 pm

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In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas

B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still
C) there were less than one percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being
D) there was less then one percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still
E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been

OA - A. Is this option not comparing electricity with theatres, restaurants...

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Re: Electricity

by piyush_nitt » Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:08 am

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aroon7 wrote:In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas

B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still
C) there were less than one percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being
D) there was less then one percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still
E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been

OA - A. Is this option not comparing electricity with theatres, restaurants...
Aaroon ,

As far as my understanding we don't use BUT for comparisons. BUT is used in sentences where author wants to show a "contrast". For comparsion , generally like or As is used.

I think its quite easy to choose a right choice in this sentence, if you look at the "where" clause. where should refer to home.

B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still
C) there were less than one percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being -
D) there was less then one percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still - electricity having lighting wrong
E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been

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Re: Electricity

by aroon7 » Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:31 pm

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piyush_nitt wrote:
aroon7 wrote:In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas

B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still
C) there were less than one percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being
D) there was less then one percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still
E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been

OA - A. Is this option not comparing electricity with theatres, restaurants...

Aaroon ,

As far as my understanding we don't use BUT for comparisons. BUT is used in sentences where author wants to show a "contrast". For comparsion , generally like or As is used.

I think its quite easy to choose a right choice in this sentence, if you look at the "where" clause. where should refer to home.

B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still
C) there were less than one percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being -
D) there was less then one percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still - electricity having lighting wrong
E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been
thanks Pyuish!
i chose E :oops:

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by mmslf75 » Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:14 am

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aroon7 wrote:In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas

B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still
C) there were less than one percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being
D) there was less then one percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still
E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been

OA - A. Is this option not comparing electricity with theatres, restaurants...



OA is A here, I have no issues in understanding why it is so..

The one thing that disturbs me is the use of LESS, here for number of homes ??
Don't u think its awkward...

It should have been few right ?????


I have one more example...where LESS is used this way...

Even though the direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to less than one percent of the $541 billion the nation spent on health care last year, doctors say fear of lawsuits plays a major role in health-care inflation

Now less than 1% if 541b$ is a value...so why LESS used here ??

Indeed, an other example

When drive-ins were at the height of their popularity in the late 1950s, some 4,000 existed in the United States, but today there are less than one-quarter that many
A. there are less than one-quarter that many
B. there are fewer than one-quarter as many
C. there are fewer than one-quarter of that amount
D. the number is less than one-quarter the amount
E. it is less than one-quarter of that amount

OA is B...

Please note I am not doubting the correctness of the anwers ... but would like to have inputs on this concept..

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by x2suresh » Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:25 pm

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mmslf75 wrote:
aroon7 wrote:In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas

B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still
C) there were less than one percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being
D) there was less then one percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still
E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been

OA - A. Is this option not comparing electricity with theatres, restaurants...



OA is A here, I have no issues in understanding why it is so..

The one thing that disturbs me is the use of LESS, here for number of homes ??
Don't u think its awkward...

It should have been few right ?????


I have one more example...where LESS is used this way...

Even though the direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to less than one percent of the $541 billion the nation spent on health care last year, doctors say fear of lawsuits plays a major role in health-care inflation

Now less than 1% if 541b$ is a value...so why LESS used here ??

Indeed, an other example

When drive-ins were at the height of their popularity in the late 1950s, some 4,000 existed in the United States, but today there are less than one-quarter that many
A. there are less than one-quarter that many
B. there are fewer than one-quarter as many
C. there are fewer than one-quarter of that amount
D. the number is less than one-quarter the amount
E. it is less than one-quarter of that amount

OA is B...

Please note I am not doubting the correctness of the anwers ... but would like to have inputs on this concept..
First two examples.. we are taking about percentage (%) not the number

Ask questions
How much percentage ? --> sounds good right
How many percentage? --> Not correct.
% is uncountable --> less is appropriate here.

Last example we are taking about numbers (Drive-ins are countable)
How many marks? -->not correct
How much marks? --> few is appropriate here..
I got fewer marks than you .
I got less percentage than you.

I hope this clears your doubt

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by gmatv09 » Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:59 pm

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IMO A becoz ...

where correctly refers to homes

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by mmslf75 » Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:42 pm

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x2suresh wrote:
mmslf75 wrote:
aroon7 wrote:In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas

B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still
C) there were less than one percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being
D) there was less then one percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still
E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been

OA - A. Is this option not comparing electricity with theatres, restaurants...



OA is A here, I have no issues in understanding why it is so..

The one thing that disturbs me is the use of LESS, here for number of homes ??
Don't u think its awkward...

It should have been few right ?????


I have one more example...where LESS is used this way...

Even though the direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to less than one percent of the $541 billion the nation spent on health care last year, doctors say fear of lawsuits plays a major role in health-care inflation

Now less than 1% if 541b$ is a value...so why LESS used here ??

Indeed, an other example

When drive-ins were at the height of their popularity in the late 1950s, some 4,000 existed in the United States, but today there are less than one-quarter that many
A. there are less than one-quarter that many
B. there are fewer than one-quarter as many
C. there are fewer than one-quarter of that amount
D. the number is less than one-quarter the amount
E. it is less than one-quarter of that amount

OA is B...

Please note I am not doubting the correctness of the anwers ... but would like to have inputs on this concept..
First two examples.. we are taking about percentage (%) not the number

Ask questions
How much percentage ? --> sounds good right
How many percentage? --> Not correct.
% is uncountable --> less is appropriate here.

Last example we are taking about numbers (Drive-ins are countable)
How many marks? -->not correct
How much marks? --> few is appropriate here..
I got fewer marks than you .
I got less percentage than you.

I hope this clears your doubt

Agreed, but literal meaning will require usage of "FEW"... I am confused..>!!

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by lunarpower » Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:16 pm

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hmm.

i would agree with you here: it should be "fewer than 1% of homes", because we're still talking about individual homes. (it's an exact correlation to "fewer than one-quarter that many" on the later example; i don't think the gmat uses fractions any differently than it uses percents).

my only possible explanation is that, sometimes, they get sloppy with things that are either
(a) in ALL of the choices, or
(b) in the non-underlined part.
things that are in these locations don't contribute to the solution of the problem, so they can afford the sloppiness ... but still, it's not a good thing for those of you who are trying to learn!

as another example, there's a problem, somewhere in the OG, whose solution actually boils down to "estimated at" vs. "estimated to be" - i.e., this is the ONLY thing separating the correct answer from one of the incorrect answers - and the solution says that "estimated at AGE" is wrong and "estimated to be AGE" is correct.
but then they turn around and do this:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/sc-with-surf ... 43734.html

i can only surmise that the same sort of thing is happening here.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by lunarpower » Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:20 pm

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mmslf75 wrote:I have one more example...where LESS is used this way...

Even though the direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to less than one percent of the $541 billion the nation spent on health care last year, doctors say fear of lawsuits plays a major role in health-care inflation
this, on the other hand, is correct usage.

when you have NUMBER + UNIT OF MEASURE, you should use the terms that are normally reserved for uncountables.
for instance:
i am less than 6 feet tall (not "i am fewer than 6 feet tall")
some of the books cost as little as $2 (not "as few as $2")

there's a rationale behind this - i can explain if you're interested - although the rationale is ultimately irrelevant; you just want to make sure that you understand the rule itself.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by mmslf75 » Sat Dec 19, 2009 7:22 am

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lunarpower wrote:
mmslf75 wrote:I have one more example...where LESS is used this way...

Even though the direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to less than one percent of the $541 billion the nation spent on health care last year, doctors say fear of lawsuits plays a major role in health-care inflation
this, on the other hand, is correct usage.

when you have NUMBER + UNIT OF MEASURE, you should use the terms that are normally reserved for uncountables.
for instance:
i am less than 6 feet tall (not "i am fewer than 6 feet tall")
some of the books cost as little as $2 (not "as few as $2")

there's a rationale behind this - i can explain if you're interested - although the rationale is ultimately irrelevant; you just want to make sure that you understand the rule itself.
Thanks RON..will remember that,, One more TAKEAWAY !~!

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by lunarpower » Sat Dec 19, 2009 11:04 pm

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mmslf75 wrote: Thanks RON..will remember that,, One more TAKEAWAY !~!
you got it.

remember, the takeaways are all that really matters in the end.

good luck
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by Nina1987 » Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:29 pm

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Ron, can you explain the rationale pls? Thanks
lunarpower wrote:
mmslf75 wrote:I have one more example...where LESS is used this way...

Even though the direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to less than one percent of the $541 billion the nation spent on health care last year, doctors say fear of lawsuits plays a major role in health-care inflation
this, on the other hand, is correct usage.

when you have NUMBER + UNIT OF MEASURE, you should use the terms that are normally reserved for uncountables.
for instance:
i am less than 6 feet tall (not "i am fewer than 6 feet tall")
some of the books cost as little as $2 (not "as few as $2")

there's a rationale behind this - i can explain if you're interested - although the rationale is ultimately irrelevant; you just want to make sure that you understand the rule itself.

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by Nina1987 » Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:45 pm

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also, can we rule out E and C, simply cuz they violate touch rule ('where', a relative pronoun, wronlgy modifying 'electricity') w/o looking any other errors? thanks

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by [email protected] » Fri Apr 26, 2019 10:04 am

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Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow it down to the right choice quickly! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences in orange:

In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops, and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas.

(A) electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still
(B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still
(C) there had been less than 1 percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being
(D) there was less than 1 percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still
(E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been

While there are a lot of things we could focus on, there are 2 major ones that jump out:

1. was/had been/had
2. was still/still/was still being/was still/had still been


Since both of these deal with verbs, let's start our focus there. If we look at the entire sentence, we can gather clues as to which verb tense we'll need to use:

In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops, and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas.

The events go in a certain order, which requires certain verb tenses:

Public spaces install electric lighting --> electricity is in less than 1 percent of homes + lighting is still done by candles and gas

The earliest event (public spaces install electric lighting) needs to use past perfect "had installed," which it does. The other two events happen later, AND AT THE SAME TIME, so they both need to use past tense. They should also be written using parallel structure. Let's see which options handle this correctly, and eliminate the ones that don't:

(A) electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided --> OK
(B) electricity was in less than one percent of homes and lighting still provided --> WRONG (needs to have the verb "was" in front of "provided" to work.)
(C) there had been less than 1 percent of homes with electricity, where lighting was still being provided --> WRONG
(D) there was less than 1 percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still provided --> OK
(E) less than one percent of homes had electricity, where lighting had still been provided --> WRONG

We can eliminate options B, C, & E because they use the wrong verb formats or don't use parallel structure. Now that we have it narrowed down to only 2 options, let's take a closer look at each option with the non-underlined part attached and look for problems:

(A) In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops, and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas.

This is CORRECT! By starting the modifier with the word "where," it modifies the noun directly before it, which is homes. This makes perfect sense! It also uses the proper verb tenses throughout to indicate the correct order of events.

(D) In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops, and banks had installed electric lighting, but there was less than 1 percent of homes that had electricity, having lighting that was still provided mainly by candles or gas.

This is INCORRECT because it includes an -ing modifier that's being used incorrectly. The -ing modifier must modify the main subject and verb of the previous clause, and in this case it's trying to modify the phrase "there was." It SHOULD modify the word "homes," but it would need to be reworded into a different type of modifier for that to work.


There you have it - option A was correct all along!


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