kyabe wrote:Although about 99 percent of the more than 50 million Turks are Muslims, the republic founded by Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk in 1923 is resolutely secular.
a...
b. Although about 99 percent of over 50 million of the
c. Although about 99 percent of more than 50 million
d. Despite the fact that about 99 percent of more than 50 million
e. Despite the fact that about 99 percent of over 50 million

OA : A

Can somebody explain this? Why not it is C

Thanks in advance

Its 8 days ... Nobody replied.. Stuart , Stacy please help !!!!

Except in A, in all other answer choices, the definite article "the" is missing. A specified noun, "Turks" in your example, must always be preceded by "the".

@FromAtoZ: I guess in here we are talking about 99% not exactly Turks.. What about this statement:

Less than 50% Americans like junk food.

I don't think that it should be

Less than the 50% Americans like junk food.

Please correct me If I am wrong

I think that your second example is not correct. It should be
... less than 50% of the Americans ...

Would you agree?

I just googled for less than 50% americans and I found it for africans

Please look into the news paper article's headline :

https://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_con ... s_Politics

What do u say now?

kyabe wrote:I just googled for less than 50% americans and I found it for africans

Please look into the news paper article's headline :

https://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_con ... s_Politics

What do u say now?

Do not go by this. In news paper you see whether or not but if you select the same in answer choice you know the result.
BTW for this question we are talking about specific turks so the is necessary. And in news paper also it depends on the emphasis.

You might be right Hemant.. But my only point was that the reasoning provided by fromAtoZ was somehow I was not convinced with

When we say "99 percent of the more than 50 million Turks", we are refering to a group of turks who are more than 50 million (say 60 million) and are saying that 99 percent of 60 million turks. When we say "99 percent of more than 50 million Turks" we are refering to the number which is 99% of the 10 million turks (Out of 60 million, 10 million is more than 50 million).
I hope this clarifies why answer is A and not C.

Thanks Sanjeev, It makes sense !!!

'the more than the' refers to approximately the number...
'more than the ' refers to more than a particular number ...

if we use "the," we are saying that there are only 50 million
Turks in the whole world; if we don't use "the," we are saying that there are possibly
more than 50 million Turks in the world.

To make this a bit more clear, take out "more than"


Although about 99 percent of the 50 million Turks are Muslim...
(There are 50 million Turks.)

Although about 99 percent of 50 million Turks are Muslim...
(May be more than 50 million Turks.)

Hope this helps

So my question is: usually we don't chose an option whcih changes the meaning of the original question. However if the original question does not make much logical sense then are we allowed to pick up a choice with a different meaning. In this particular question my take was that the more than refers to the segment of population which is over 50 million. So lets say that the population of turkey was 51 million then my interpretation was that the 99% of the segment which is more than 50 million i.e. 1 million i.e. 999900. Please explain!!!!

SanjeevK wrote:When we say "99 percent of the more than 50 million Turks", we are refering to a group of turks who are more than 50 million (say 60 million) and are saying that 99 percent of 60 million turks. When we say "99 percent of more than 50 million Turks" we are refering to the number which is 99% of the 10 million turks (Out of 60 million, 10 million is more than 50 million).
I hope this clarifies why answer is A and not C.

Can someone please help me understand the difference between the following four sentences:

1. 99 percent of "the" more than 50 million Turks
2. 99 percent of more than 50 million Turks
3. 99 percent of more than "the" 50 million Turks
4. 99 percent of "the" more than "the" 50 million Turks

What is the source of this question? Is it from GMAT prep?