MGMAT SC Strategy Guide (p. 80) Kindle Edition - Modifiers

[RahulB226]

Two queries from the Problem Set of Modifiers : -

5. People that are well-informed know that Bordeaux is a French region whose most famous export is the wine which bears its name.

Here the solution is given as : Well-informed people know that Bordeaux is a French region whose most famous export is the wine that bears its name.
And it has been stated that an essential modifier must describe wine and a sentence ending with wine will be incorrect.
What's wrong with the sentence stating that : Well-informed people know that Bordeaux is a French region whose most famous export is the wine.
It states a fact that only well informed people know that such a region exists and has the wine as its most famous export. In my opinion we can have the last modifier as a non-essential modifier retaining the which.

Kindly let me know what is it that I am thinking wrong in it.

14. Between 1998 and 2003, there was heavy fighting in Parthia AMONG numerous armed factions; this conflict, so much more complicated than a conventional war between two states, involved no FEWER than eight countries and twenty-five militias.

It has been stated that Less should be fewer, because countries and militias are countable entities.
What about using less instead, as the sentence is describing UNITs of something such as using less for 20 dollars - the point I am trying to make here is since when we say less than 20 dollars we are making reference to '20 dollars', an amount of money. Similarly, here 8 armies and 25 militias are an amount of something.

Kindly enlighten me as to where am I going wrong?

[cgentry]

Two queries from the Problem Set of Modifiers : -

5. People that are well-informed know that Bordeaux is a French region whose most famous export is the wine which bears its name.

Here the solution is given as : Well-informed people know that Bordeaux is a French region whose most famous export is the wine that bears its name.
And it has been stated that an essential modifier must describe wine and a sentence ending with wine will be incorrect.
What's wrong with the sentence stating that : Well-informed people know that Bordeaux is a French region whose most famous export is the wine.
It states a fact that only well informed people know that such a region exists and has the wine as its most famous export. In my opinion we can have the last modifier as a non-essential modifier retaining the which.

Kindly let me know what is it that I am thinking wrong in it.

14. Between 1998 and 2003, there was heavy fighting in Parthia AMONG numerous armed factions; this conflict, so much more complicated than a conventional war between two states, involved no FEWER than eight countries and twenty-five militias.

It has been stated that Less should be fewer, because countries and militias are countable entities.
What about using less instead, as the sentence is describing UNITs of something such as using less for 20 dollars - the point I am trying to make here is since when we say less than 20 dollars we are making reference to '20 dollars', an amount of money. Similarly, here 8 armies and 25 militias are an amount of something.

Kindly enlighten me as to where am I going wrong?

With your first example, I'm left asking "but what wine are you talking about?" Consider the slightly altered version: Well-informed people know that Bordeaux is a French region whose most famous export is wine." When I remove the word "the" from before "wine", wine is now generic. But "the wine" seems much more specific, and I'm left wondering what wine you mean.

As for your second example, let's expand on the money hypothetical. "I have less than 20 dollars in my wallet" is describing the amount of money I have in my wallet. However, "I have fewer than 20 one dollar bills in my wallet" is describing the number of dollar bills.

You state that you want to use UNITs...and then try to create a scenario in which you have units of something, but would still use the word "less". But "less than 20 dollars" is not the units; "20 one dollar bills" is the units.

Similarly, an army is a military unit. So 8 armies is more akin to "20 one dollar bills", if you want to make a monetary analogy.