Quantity comparison with appositive

[duyng9989]

Hi.

I have a question:

I encountered one question (from Verbal Review 2). I cannot post the original question since it is from banned source. But basically, the question is follow:

ABC company is providing jobs for 1 million people, about as many as is the company XYZ. (correct answer).

How the phrase (as many as is the company XYZ) modifies the previous clause? since I thought that "As many as" is an appositive and supposedly does not have verb?

PS: Original question is question 85 Verbal Review 2. - (Carnegie Foundation question). Sorry if I mentioned a question from banned source. I have tried to modified the original question.

I hope to hear from you soon since I only have few days to prepare for my GMAT. I am taking it in 3 days :((.

Sincerely,

[RonPurewal]

Hi.

I have a question:

I encountered one question (from Verbal Review 2). I cannot post the original question since it is from banned source. But basically, the question is follow:

ABC company is providing jobs for 1 million people, about as many as is the company XYZ. (correct answer).

well, this example isn't constructed properly ("about as many as is..." would only make sense in reference to jobs, not people -- the company doesn't provide people!). but, i see what you're doing here.

the problem #85 is one of those instances in which you aren't literally making a comparison. the first half of the "comparison" is just a number of people, so the second half can be anything that reasonably describes that number of people.

[duyng9989]

Hi.

I have a question:

I encountered one question (from Verbal Review 2). I cannot post the original question since it is from banned source. But basically, the question is follow:

ABC company is providing jobs for 1 million people, about as many as is the company XYZ. (correct answer).

well, this example isn't constructed properly ("about as many as is..." would only make sense in reference to jobs, not people -- the company doesn't provide people!). but, i see what you're doing here.

the problem #85 is one of those instances in which you aren't literally making a comparison. the first half of the "comparison" is just a number of people, so the second half can be anything that reasonably describes that number of people.

How can the "anything" in the second half modify the people in #85?

In my modified example, why "about as many as is..." does not modify the people? I tried to construct the example similar to the question 85. What is the difference between my example and the #85?

Thank you

[duyng9989]

Hi.

I have a question:

I encountered one question (from Verbal Review 2). I cannot post the original question since it is from banned source. But basically, the question is follow:

ABC company is providing jobs for 1 million people, about as many as is the company XYZ. (correct answer).

well, this example isn't constructed properly ("about as many as is..." would only make sense in reference to jobs, not people -- the company doesn't provide people!). but, i see what you're doing here.

the problem #85 is one of those instances in which you aren't literally making a comparison. the first half of the "comparison" is just a number of people, so the second half can be anything that reasonably describes that number of people.

How can the "anything" in the second half modify the people in #85?

In my modified example, why "about as many as is..." does not modify the people? I tried to construct the example similar to the question 85. What is the difference between my example and the #85?

Thank you

Does anyone have any idea?

Thank you

[RonPurewal]

In my modified example, why "about as many as is..." does not modify the people? I tried to construct the example similar to the question 85.

that example is not similar to the OG verbal problem.

in the OG problem, you have "x number of people" right in front of the comma, and then "about as many as are ..."
so, ask yourself:
about as many _____ as are ...
what's in the blank?
the blank would contain "people" -- and "people" is right there, so you're all good.

in your example, you still have a number of people before the comma, but now the situation is
about as many ______ as company xyz is [providing]
that's not a number of people anymore, so that doesn't work.

[duyng9989]

In my modified example, why "about as many as is..." does not modify the people? I tried to construct the example similar to the question 85.

that example is not similar to the OG verbal problem.

in the OG problem, you have "x number of people" right in front of the comma, and then "about as many as are ..."
so, ask yourself:
about as many _____ as are ...
what's in the blank?
the blank would contain "people" -- and "people" is right there, so you're all good.

in your example, you still have a number of people before the comma, but now the situation is
about as many ______ as company xyz is [providing]
that's not a number of people anymore, so that doesn't work.

So I have two questions:
1. Is the problem here about ellipsis?
We can safely delete a portion of a comparison without making a confusion?

In the OG question, it deletes "people"
The full version is:

[...] 8 million people, about as many people as are enrolled in the nation's four-year colleges and universities.

2. How can I mimic the OG sentence? My intended meaning is the number of job provided by company XYZ is about the same of that of company ABC.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

1. Is the problem here about ellipsis?

sorry, i don't have any idea what that means.

(in general, i know almost no grammar terms at all, other than the super-basic ones -- noun, verb, clause, etc.
if i ever post about any term more obscure than those ones, it's only because i just finished googling it.)

2. How can I mimic the OG sentence? My intended meaning is the number of job provided by company XYZ is about the same of that of company ABC.

Thanks

just write the sentence so that you're actually comparing quantities of the same thing.

you can compare numbers of people:
Company A is providing jobs for 10,000 people, about as many as have been hired in the past year by company B.

... or numbers of jobs:
Company A has recently created 10,000 new jobs, about as many as Company B created last year.

[HanzZ]

you can compare numbers of people:
Company A is providing jobs for 10,000 people, about as many as have been hired in the past year by company B.

... or numbers of jobs:
Company A has recently created 10,000 new jobs, about as many as Company B created last year.

Hello Ron,

I am trying to understand your following comment:
"the problem #85 is one of those instances in which you aren't literally making a comparison. the first half of the "comparison" is just a number of people, so the second half can be anything that reasonably describes that number of people."

Applying this comment to the two examples quoted above, I developed the following understanding. Please let me know if it's correct.

In the first sentence, "have been hired in the past year by company B" is 'missing' a subject. "10,000 people" can work as the subject and complete the sentence: 10,000 people have been hired in the past by company B.

Similarily, in the second example, "Company B created last year" is 'missing' an object for "created". "10,000 new jobs" serves the purpose and complete the sentence: Company B created 10,000 new jobs last year.

Therefore, "as many as" is kind of like a bridge that connects two otherwise independent sentences because of the common elements (either 10,000 people or 10,000 new jobs)?

So in the future if I encounter similar sentences, may I use such method just discussed to test whether the element that comes before "as many as" can succesfully complete what comes after "as many as"?

In the two examples above, either the subject or the object is "missing"(I hope this sentence makes sense). Is there any other example where other components of a sentence can be "missing"?

---
If you don't mind, could you please let me know if my following examples are correct:

Mike got 35 questions correct on the test, as many as I got (correct). (May I dismiss "correct"?)

Mike got 35 questions correct on the test, as many as the number of questions I got (correct).

I hope my examples stick to what GMAT will test.

Thank you for your kind reply. As always!

[RonPurewal]

So in the future if I encounter similar sentences, may I use such method just discussed to test whether the element that comes before "as many as" can succesfully complete what comes after "as many as"?

That's a nice way of summarizing the idea.

In the two examples above, either the subject or the object is "missing"(I hope this sentence makes sense). Is there any other example where other components of a sentence can be "missing"?

I can't think of anything immediately, but there certainly could be others. (The human brain isn't capable of this type of exhaustive recall; it only works if random examples randomly come to mind. Right now, no such examples are forthcoming.)

[RonPurewal]

If you don't mind, could you please let me know if my following examples are correct:

Mike got 35 questions correct on the test, as many as I got (correct). (May I dismiss "correct"?)

This one is fine.

"Got correct" is not appropriate for formal writing in the first place, so the question is a non-question.
It would be possible to write Mike answered 35 questions correctly, as many as I did.

Mike got 35 questions correct on the test, as many as the number of questions I got (correct).

"As many as" + "the number" = redundancy. So this one is not acceptable.

You can use "the number" itself as a modifier:
In a single set Jake performed 80 pull-ups, the (same) number his brother had managed in an entire hour.