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Countable Noun Problem

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Countable Noun Problem

by tonebeeze » Mon Mar 28, 2011 10:49 am
In 1800, women bore, on average, 7 children; by the Great Depression such an amount had dropped down to 2.2.

a. such an amount had dropped down
b. this figure had dropped
c. such a number had dropped
d. such a number is down
e. the total is down

OA = B

[spoiler]I thought "amount" is not countable, and "number" is countable. Can someone explain why B is correct and C is incorrect. Thanks![/spoiler]
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by singh181 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 10:58 am
tonebeeze wrote:In 1800, women bore, on average, 7 children; by the Great Depression such an amount had dropped down to 2.2.

a. such an amount had dropped down (Redundancy "down" and "dropped")
b. this figure had dropped
c. such a number had dropped (Usually, "such" is used to include example or of similar type. In the sentence, we are interested in this particular number not in other similar numbers.)
d. such a number is down (Past perfect required. Present tense is wrong)
e. the total is down (Past perfect required)

Please let me know if you have further questions.
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by atulmangal » Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:21 pm
singh181 wrote:
tonebeeze wrote:In 1800, women bore, on average, 7 children; by the Great Depression such an amount had dropped down to 2.2.

a. such an amount had dropped down (Redundancy "down" and "dropped")
b. this figure had dropped
c. such a number had dropped (Usually, "such" is used to include example or of similar type. In the sentence, we are interested in this particular number not in other similar numbers.)
d. such a number is down (Past perfect required. Present tense is wrong)
e. the total is down (Past perfect required)

Please let me know if you have further questions.
Nice explanation
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by Target2009 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:24 pm
singh181 wrote:
tonebeeze wrote:In 1800, women bore, on average, 7 children; by the Great Depression such an amount had dropped down to 2.2.

a. such an amount had dropped down (Redundancy "down" and "dropped")
b. this figure had dropped
c. such a number had dropped (Usually, "such" is used to include example or of similar type. In the sentence, we are interested in this particular number not in other similar numbers.)
d. such a number is down (Past perfect required. Present tense is wrong)
e. the total is down (Past perfect required)

Please let me know if you have further questions.
Grt Going Singh.. :)
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Abhishek
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:39 pm
Nice explanation, singh181!

One more thing to add in response to tonebeeze's initial question:

When applying your knowledge of idioms you can eliminate choices that clearly misuse an idiomatic expression. You cannot choose a choice simply because it uses an idiom correctly; similarly, you cannot eliminate a choice because it does not use your preferred idiom.

This question is a good example. Yes, in a countable/uncountable situation you'd want to use "number", and not "amount", for a countable noun. But "figure" is a synonym for "number" - "figure" is not wrong! You could eliminate "amount" if you want, but that doesn't mean that "number" is definitively correct. There may be another correct way of phrasing the same thing other than the idiom that you've studied.

One of our instructors told me that "the trickiest idioms I've learned on the GMAT I've learned by taking the GMATPrep tests", noting that "once I've eliminated all the wrong answers there's sometimes an idiom left standing that I never really knew before". The English language is huge - there are several ways to phrase any given thought (there are also multiple ways to do so; countless ways, even; you could even say that each thought could be expressed in any variety of ways). Please, please don't get in the habit of looking for one particular idiom - Sentence Correction is much more a test of your ability to eliminate what you know to be wrong than it is of searching for what you know to be right.
Brian Galvin
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by rohu27 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:50 pm
someone please help me get this:

according to the sentence, great depresion happened after 1800? and past perfect tense is used to describe the earlier of 2 past events?
how can we use it here. help!!
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