hey_thr67 wrote:In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than those of the 1978 harvest.
A: less than those of the 1978 harvest.
B: less than the 1978 harvest.
C: less than 1978.
D: fewer than 1978.
E: less than that of India's 1978 harvest.
[spoiler]OA is B. Why not A ?[/spoiler]
In E,
that seems to refer to
production. Thus,
that of India's 1978 harvest implies the PRODUCTION of India's HARVEST - an error of redundancy, since the PRODUCTION and the HARVEST are the same thing. Eliminate E.
C and D each seem to compare the rice production to
1978. The PRODUCTION cannot be compared to a YEAR. Eliminate C and D.
In A,
those seems to refer to
tons, implying that the TONS of the rice production in 1979 are being compared to the TONS of the 1978 harvest. Not the intended meaning. The intention here is to compare the PRODUCTION in one year to the HARVEST in the other. Eliminate A.
The correct answer is
B.
Consider the following analogy.
INCORRECT:
This year John's salary increased to 50,000 dollars, 25% more than those of his salary last year.
This sentence is nonsense: the intention clearly is not to compare the DOLLARS of one salary to the DOLLARS of the other but rather to compare one SALARY to the other.
Last edited by
GMATGuruNY on Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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