Employment costs rose 2.8 percent in the 12 months

[RonPurewal]

Can "less" be used with mathematical quantities? I always think that "less" and "greater" are opposite.

Most aspects of the difference between "less" and "lower" are too nuanced to be tested on this exam.

Here are some things that are more absolute, and, as such, may actually be reasonably tested:

* To express the frequency with with something happens"”or the total number of occurrences"”"lower" can't be used, only "less".
E.g., if Joe and John are soccer players, Joe scored less than John this year.
E.g., Joe didn't put the ball into the goal as many times as John did.
BUT...
If Joe and John both took an exam, Joe scored lower than John did.

* The blank in "a ____ noun" can't be filled by less.
E.g., Tiffany wants to score 600, and will not be happy with a lower score. ("A less score" is not a thing.)

The most important piece of advice about less vs. lower is that, if you see this difference, it's probably distracting you from something more important.

[RonPurewal]

(2)
You said "the number is lower than other number"
could "greater" or "higher" replace "lower"?

Greater/higher/larger can all be used for numerical quantities. The differences are nuances that won't be tested on this exam; I can't think of anything straigthforward enough to be tested.
If you know of any examples from official problems, please let me know.

[RonPurewal]

The sentence says "the costs rose less than ...".
I think "less" describes the changes of the costs in different timeframes.

So, can "lower" and "greater" be used to describe the change as "less" can?

thank you.

No. "Lower" and "greater" can't be used to compare actions.

[thanghnvn]

Employment costs rose 2.8 percent in the 12 months that ended in September, slightly less than they did in the year that ended in the previous quarter.

(A) less than they did
(B) less than it did
(C) less than they were
(D) lower than
(E) lower than they were

Is "Employment costs" a countable/uncountable item.

How to select between option "A" and "C"

Thanks

Ron tell us to learn from OA.
if A is correct, "less than they did..." is adverbial which modifies the preceding clause. is that right? I do not understand this pattern. pls, explain

I infer, from the choice A, that the following pattern is correct

it rises 2.8 percent now, more clearly than it did previously

pls, explain this pattern

[thanghnvn]

of course, A is best.

"less than they did..." in A is adverbial and "2.8 percent" is adverbial. both adverbial modify the verb "rise"

why we do not need "and" between these adverbials?

pls, help.

[RonPurewal]

"And" would make the sentence incorrect, since these are not two separate observations.

Analogy:
I live in Los Angeles, the largest city in the western United States.
L.A. is the largest city in the western U.S., so "and" would be inappropriate here.

I've lived in Florida and in Nevada.
These are two different places.

[RonPurewal]

if A is correct, "less than they did..." is adverbial which modifies the preceding clause. is that right? I do not understand this pattern. pls, explain

I'm not sure what you mean by "pattern".

The meaning should be clear: The costs rose by 2.8% this past year; in the previous year, they rose by more than 2.8%. So, this year, they rose less than they did last year.

I have no idea how to explain this in terms of grammatical terminology, but, of course, there's no need to do so.

[RonPurewal]

I infer, from the choice A, that the following pattern is correct

it rises 2.8 percent now, more clearly than it did previously

This sentence is nonsense. A percentage cannot be "more clear" than another percentage.

You can only "infer" that this "pattern" is correct if you are completely ignoring the meaning/context of the sentence.

[thanghnvn]

I did not receive the notification of reply in this forum though I tick the box "notification"

is there any problem in this forum

[thanghnvn]

"slightly less then they did..." must modify "rise" not "2.8 percent"

so , the following sentence is correct

the price rise 8 percent, more clearly than it did last year

"more clearly than it did" modify "rise" not "8 percent". because if the phrase modify "8 percent", it is not logic

"8 percent" can not be "more clearly than it did"

[RonPurewal]

"slightly less then they did..." must modify "rise" not "2.8 percent"

so , the following sentence is correct

the price rise 8 percent, more clearly than it did last year

"more clearly than it did" modify "rise" not "8 percent". because if the phrase modify "8 percent", it is not logic

"8 percent" can not be "more clearly than it did"

This is still nonsense. Percentages are percentages; they can't be more or less "clear" than other percentages.

In case you aren't following me, here's an analogy.
* "Rick gained weight both last year and this year, but he gained weight more clearly this year." --> Makes sense. The weight gain was more obvious this year.
* "Rick gained 20 pounds both last year and this year, but he gained 20 pounds more clearly this year." --> Nonsense. If it's an exact figure, it's an exact figure. Exact figures can't have differential levels of clarity.

If you're going to construct examples, please think carefully about whether they actually make logical sense.

[RonPurewal]

"slightly less then they did..." must modify "rise" not "2.8 percent"

It's not necessary to make this distinction. As long as you understand that ...
... last year, they rose by 2.8%,
... this year, this rose by a lower percentage,
you're good.

The 2.8% is the amount of the "rise", so there's no point in trying to separate those two.

[thanghnvn]

"And" would make the sentence incorrect, since these are not two separate observations.

Analogy:
I live in Los Angeles, the largest city in the western United States.
L.A. is the largest city in the western U.S., so "and" would be inappropriate here.

I've lived in Florida and in Nevada.
These are two different places.

thank you , Ron,
we do not need "and" because "less than they did" modifies " rose 2,8 percent" not only modifies "rose". thank you , Ron

[RonPurewal]

You're welcome, but make sure that you don't complicate the idea.

"And" separates two ideas. In this sentence, there's only one idea.
The second part is just a further description of that same idea. It's not a second idea.

You don't have to pin down the modifier so precisely to figure this out; you only have to differentiate between "one idea" and "two ideas".

[AllenY389]

Hi, Ron
sorry to bump this old thread again.

in the following problem
"More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined."
you said that the second "more than XXX" is an appositive and modifies the whole action" which holds"

and I think this problem is the same as the problem mentioned above, "less than XXX" is an appositive,too.
am i wrong?
if "less than XXX" is an appositive, less should be the noun. not adverb. I'm confused.
could you help me.
thanks in advance.