1000SC: Qn:164

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Qn:164

Because natural gas is composed mostly of methane, a simple hydrocarbon, vehicles powered by natural gas emit less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel.

(A) less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel
(B) fewer of certain pollutants than burning gasoline or diesel fuel do
(C) less of certain pollutants than gasoline or diesel fuel
(D) fewer of certain pollutants than does burning gasoline or diesel fuel
(E) less of certain pollutants than those burning gasoline or diesel fuel

Official Answer: E

posted by Ravanan at Thursday, April 13, 2006

There are 8 comments so far.

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Anonymous said...: testing less vs few. 'few' is for countable objects 'less' is for uncountable. pollutants is uncountable therefore 'less' need be used. so left with A C and E. E is only one wit parrallelism.; August 11, 2007 11:50 AM
Unknown said...: Hope this usage note (taken from dictionary.com) would be of some use

—Usage note Even though less has been used before plural nouns (less words; less men) since the time of King Alfred, many modern usage guides say that only fewer can be used in such contexts. Less, they say, should modify singular mass nouns (less sugar; less money) and singular abstract nouns (less honesty; less love). It should modify plural nouns only when they suggest combination into a unit, group, or aggregation: less than $50 (a sum of money); less than three miles (a unit of distance). With plural nouns specifying individuals or readily distinguishable units, the guides say that fewer is the only proper choice: fewer words; fewer men; no fewer than 31 of the 50 states.
Modern standard English practice does not reflect this distinction. When followed by than, less occurs at least as often as fewer in modifying plural nouns that are not units or groups, and the use of less in this construction is increasing in all varieties of English: less than eight million people; no less than 31 of the 50 states. When not followed by than, fewer is more frequent only in formal written English, and in this construction also the use of less is increasing: This year we have had less crimes, less accidents, and less fires than in any of the last five years.; January 28, 2008 11:29 PM
Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; August 12, 2009 9:13 AM
Unknown said...: I still dont understand about their usage in GMAT. Remember the question having "dioxins" ? The answer to that question had "many", rendering dioxins countable. However, here, the pollutants are not countable. I dunno how they managed to count dioxins in the air while they cant count other pollutants :P; August 12, 2009 9:15 AM
DataWizard said...: Only D is comparing vehicles, others choices are a waste of time.; January 30, 2010 7:38 AM
Ritesh Garg said...: You meant E; May 18, 2011 5:51 PM
vbarcelone said...: Gosh, there is a great deal of effective info here!; March 26, 2012 5:15 AM
Vipul said...: Less is correct....non-countable noun....But E cannot be correct...Answer should be B. Those is E has very ambiguous reference...; September 17, 2015 11:10 PM

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Thursday, April 13, 2006

Qn:164

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