Sentence Correction

Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, the man-eater of the movies-less than those killed by bee stings.

A. movies-less than those
B. movies-fewer than have been
C. movies, which is less than those
D. movies, a number lower than the people
E. movies, fewer than the ones

OA: B

One key thing here is knowing that the quantity word less is used with things that are not countable, such as water, and the quantity word fewer is used with countable things, such as people. So those signs for the express lines in stores, the ones that say "Less Than Fifteen Items" are examples of incorrect grammar.

A) So this is wrong, because less is incorrectly used.

B) In this one, fewer is correctly used and the entire construction is effective.

C) This one involves the use of a which modifier that is not clearly linked to what it modifies, if it is even linked to anything.

D) This one has two obvious issues. One is that a number lower than does not have a clear referent. The other is that number is incorrectly compared to people.

E) In this one seven people is illogically compared to the ones. Here's a sentence that highlights that illogic. Seven people are fewer than the ones killed by bee stings. It basically compares a quantity to the people in a group.

So that's why B is correct.

I am not sure how much GMAT questions involve the use of quantity words these days - there don't seem to be as many idiom based questions as there once were - but learning how to correctly use the various quantity words may still be relevant for GMAT preparation, and definitely is for using English effectively.

I wouldn't call this an idiom question, more involved with counting and non-counting nouns. As such, we are using counting nouns - we can actually count the people. B and E are the only ones that use 'fewer', which is appropriate for counting nouns.

In E, the number of people is compared to a group of people - this is incorrect and leaves B.

Always keep the following thing in mind when you encounter a question that has less/fewer in it:

less is used with uncountable things, such as tiredness,
fewer is used with countable things, such as number of players in a team.

After applying this learning, you are left with options: B, D and E.

On second round of investigation, we see that
D incorrectly compares number to people and
E illogically compares "seven people" to the "ones". It compares number to a group.

Hence B is the correct answer here

So we need not worry about role of punctuation I.e. ', -' in this question. With b 2 dashes are confusing.

debusingh wrote:So we need not worry about role of punctuation I.e. ', -' in this question. With b 2 dashes are confusing.

- is somewhat interchangeable with , and anyway either is fine in that spot.

Regarding your confusion, I too never did see hyphens used so much before I started playing the GMAT game...

Hi Experts,
Would require few clarifications on B and E.

In B, please clarify what are the ENTITIES compared ? How EXACTLY B stands correct ?

In E, seven people killed by the shark...fewer than the ones killed by bee stings -- please shed light that how this comparison is WRONG ? Is it because the term ONES here indicates to the PEOPLE killed by bees NOT to the NUMBER of PEOPLE killed by bees ?

In E, seven people killed by the shark...fewer than the ones killed by bee stings -- please shed light that how this comparison is WRONG ? Is it because the term ONES here indicates to the PEOPLE killed by bees NOT to the NUMBER of PEOPLE killed by bees ?

Exactly. "Ones" requires a plural antecedent, so it appears to refer to "people." You can compare one quantity to another quantity, but it isn't coherent to compare one quantity to people.

Thanks Dave. Can you please shed some light on my concern related to the option B as mentioned above in my post ?

In B, please clarify what are the ENTITIES compared ? How EXACTLY B stands correct ?

B is comparing the number of people killed by sharks to the number of people killed by bee stings. In this case the second quantity is inferred:

Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, the man-eater of the movies- fewer than [the number of people who] have been killed by bee stings.

RBBmba@2014 wrote:Hi Experts,
Would require few clarifications on B and E.

In B, please clarify what are the ENTITIES compared ? How EXACTLY B stands correct ?

In E, seven people killed by the shark...fewer than the ones killed by bee stings -- please shed light that how this comparison is WRONG ? Is it because the term ONES here indicates to the PEOPLE killed by bees NOT to the NUMBER of PEOPLE killed by bees ?

Only PARALLEL FORMS can be compared.
E: Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, fewer than the ones killed by bee stings.
Here, the killed in red serves not as a verb but as an ADJECTIVE describing ones.
What KIND of ones?
Ones KILLED BY BEES STINGS.
As result, E incorrectly compares a VERB (have been killed) to a MODIFIER (the killed in red)
Eliminate E.

OA: Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, fewer than have been killed by bee stings.
The OA correctly compares the two VERBS in blue.

GMATGuruNY wrote: Only PARALLEL FORMS can be compared.
E: Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, fewer than the ones killed by bee stings.
Here, the killed in red serves not as a verb but as an ADJECTIVE describing ones.
What KIND of ones?
Ones KILLED BY BEES STINGS.
As result, E incorrectly compares a VERB (have been killed) to a MODIFIER (the killed in red)
Eliminate E.

@ GMATGuruNY -If we interpret E as Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, fewer than the ones [who have been]killed by bee stings.

OR, Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, fewer than the ones [who are]killed by bee stings.

Then in BOTH the above cases - have been killed and are killed are VERB, NOT ADJECTIVE. So parallelism is maintained, BUT here issue is with ONES, I think. Right ?

GMATGuruNY wrote: OA: Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, fewer than have been [killed] by bee stings.
Here, the word in brackets is omitted, but its presence is implied.
As a result, the OA correctly compares the two VERBS in blue.

Here,I think, ELLIPSIS is at play as following - Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark...fewer than [the NUMBER of people WHO] have been killed by bee stings..

COMPARISON between seven people killed by the great white shark and the NUMBER of people killed by bee stings . Isn't it ?

Look forward to hear from you.

RBBmba@2014 wrote:@ GMATGuruNY -If we interpret E as Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, fewer than the ones [who have been]killed by bee stings.

OR, Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, fewer than the ones [who are]killed by bee stings.

Then in BOTH the above cases - have been killed and are killed are VERB, NOT ADJECTIVE.

Only PARALLEL FORMS may be compared.
seven people have been killed (subject + verb) and the ones who are killed (pronoun + who-modifier) are NOT parallel forms.

Here,I think, ELLIPSIS is at play as following - Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark...fewer than [the NUMBER of people WHO] have been killed by bee stings..

COMPARISON between seven people killed by the great white shark and the NUMBER of people killed by bee stings . Isn't it ?

This interpretation is not quite right.
Since the number does not appear in the main clause, these words cannot be implied in the modifier that ends the sentence.
The OA implies the following comparison:
Fewer [people have been killed by the great white shark] than [people] have been killed by bee stings.

GMATGuruNY wrote: Only PARALLEL FORMS may be compared.
seven people have been killed (subject + verb) and the ones who are killed (pronoun + who-modifier) are NOT parallel forms.

Got this.Thanks!

GMATGuruNY wrote:This interpretation is not quite right.
Since the number does not appear in the main clause, these words cannot be implied in the modifier that ends the sentence.
The OA implies the following comparison:
Fewer [people have been killed by the great white shark] than [people] have been killed by bee stings.

Understood the intended meaning. BUT could you please shed light on how the ACTUAL SC would look like with ELLIPSIS at play ?

Only seven people this century have been killed by the great white shark, the man-eater of the movies-fewer than [...] have been killed by bee stings -- what phrase is EXACTLY dropped in the [RED] portion,considering the above intended comparison ?

Look forward to your feedback.