When drive-ins were at the height of their popularity in the

[sudaif]

This is a pretty rare setup - we have an ellipsis, so the second "as" is implied.

Notice that they also didn't include anything after where the "as would have gone - the other half of the comparison.

today, there are fewer than one quarter as many (drive-ins as there were at the height of their popularity in the late 1950s). If I'm not going to say all that other stuff about the drive-ins here, then I also don't need the second "as." But if I were going to say all that stuff about the drive-ins right after the "as many" then I would need the second "as." (Of course, I couldn't say all that stuff after the "as many" unless I also got rid of the opening clause, or it would be redundant.)

Can someone pls explain what an ellipsis is ??
Also, B is correct as opposed to A, because drive-ins are countable nouns, correct? thanks in advance

[RonPurewal]

Can someone pls explain what an ellipsis is ??

it's a construction in which one or more words are eliminated, usually because they have some sort of counterpart that appears earlier in the sentence.

for instance:
in the 1995 world hockey championships, sweden won the gold medal and finland the silver.
this is a correctly worded sentence; note that in this case there is another ellipsis: we don't have to repeat the words "won" or "medal".

it's quite difficult to nail down any sort of specific rules regarding when it's ok to do this. worse yet, the issue of ellipsis is greatly confounded by parallelism -- there are many instances in which parallel structure requires that a certain word be repeated, even if that word can be omitted in a different sort of parallel structure.
therefore, in situations such as this one, you should probably not worry that much about the omitted words -- you should try to eliminate based on other factors first. for instance, in this problem, you've noticed the difference between countable and uncountable; that difference by itself is actually sufficient to eliminate all four of the wrong choices (choice (a) contains "less"; the last three choices all contain "amount").

incidentally, if you prefer, you may actually conceive of the structure in this correct answer as a different idiom entirely, rather than as an ellipsis.
namely:
if you use "as many / as much / more / less" with a PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED QUANTITY (i.e., a quantity that is mentioned before the comparison has been made), then you can eliminate the subsequent use of "as" or "than".
this is what's happening in the correct answer here.

another example:
james had found over 50 words in the puzzle, but his brother found even more on the subsequent turn. --> note that we don't have to say "than" here, since the initial comparison value (50 words) has already been mentioned.

Also, B is correct as opposed to A, because drive-ins are countable nouns, correct? thanks in advance

yep.
see the post directly before yours. here's a link:
post36951.html#p36951

[yklouk]

prep: In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops, and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas.
The full question is here: in-the-major-cities-of-industrialized-countries-at-the-end-t541.html
in case, anyone is interested ;-)

wow, that's a great find. i'd buy you a beer for that one if you were in front of me.

that usage is, indeed, inconsistent with the gmat's other usage, which i've detailed in the post above.

here's the saving grace, though: it's not a split.
in other words, ALL of the choices say "less than 1% of homes", so you're not making decisions based on that particular construction. my hypothesis: because they're not splitting that construction, they just didn't pay as much attention to it as they should have.

in a split between "less than 1% of homes" and "fewer than 1% of homes", i strongly suspect that the correct answer would contain the latter.
we can only wait and see.

As to the "less" problem, I find this may tell something useful:

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.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Less?r=66

[RonPurewal]

prep: In the major cities of industrialized countries at the end of the nineteenth century, important public places such as theaters, restaurants, shops, and banks had installed electric lighting, but electricity was in less than one percent of homes, where lighting was still provided mainly by candles or gas.
The full question is here: in-the-major-cities-of-industrialized-countries-at-the-end-t541.html
in case, anyone is interested ;-)

wow, that's a great find. i'd buy you a beer for that one if you were in front of me.

that usage is, indeed, inconsistent with the gmat's other usage, which i've detailed in the post above.

here's the saving grace, though: it's not a split.
in other words, ALL of the choices say "less than 1% of homes", so you're not making decisions based on that particular construction. my hypothesis: because they're not splitting that construction, they just didn't pay as much attention to it as they should have.

in a split between "less than 1% of homes" and "fewer than 1% of homes", i strongly suspect that the correct answer would contain the latter.
we can only wait and see.

As to the "less" problem, I find this may tell something useful:

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.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Less?r=66

i can tell you with 100% confidence that "less crimes, less accidents, less fires" would be wrong if you saw any of them on the test.
as a professional writer and editor, i can also tell you that a writer who used any of these constructions in a formal article would not be hired again.

i guess the above example gets a pass because "less" is placed on "1 percent". ("less homes" would without a doubt be incorrect.)

[tkotw79]

Hi,

I have a question regarding option regarding Answer choices B vs. C

I do understand that OA is B and also the logic behind choosing B over C, however to broaden my understanding I need to know if Option C was constructed as:
There are fewer than one-quarter of that number

1) Would it be a right construction? If so then
2) How should i choose between B and C? or should i choose B over C because it is more concise

I m getting all comparison based questions-Like, Unlike and As- right

I need some serious help with other formats of comparisons based questions, I get 90% of the questions wrong which are based on comparisons that include ''than'' followed by a number being compared with use of ''that, those''

I am also not able to distinguish between which words are essential and which words can be omitted to maintain parallelism in comparisons - Would appreciate some pointers

Thanks for all your support

[RonPurewal]

if Option C was constructed as:
There are fewer than one-quarter of that number

1) Would it be a right construction?

That would work ok.

If so then
2) How should i choose between B and C? or should i choose B over C because it is more concise

How should you choose between two correct answers? Well, you can't. They're two correct answers.

No GMAT problem will have more than one correct answer.

[RonPurewal]

I am also not able to distinguish between which words are essential and which words can be omitted to maintain parallelism in comparisons - Would appreciate some pointers

The most important pointer is that you should stop thinking about "omission", because comparisons don't actually "omit" words.

All you really need to think about is ...
... Is it clear what's being compared?
... If there are words that need certain grammatical antecedents (that, those, do, etc.), are the necessary structures there?
... Are the correct things parallel?

If the answers are "yes", then the comparison is fine.

[eggpain24]

Also

the “it” in choice E lacks a logical antecedent...

[JianchengD868]

if Option C was constructed as:
There are fewer than one-quarter of that number.

1) Would it be a right construction?

That would work ok.

If so then
2) How should i choose between B and C? or should i choose B over C because it is more concise

How should you choose between two correct answers? Well, you can't. They're two correct answers.

No GMAT problem will have more than one correct answer.

Dear Ron,

Sorry to dig up this old post.
I still don't know why the sentence - There are fewer than one-quarter of that number is right.
I think it should be like this: There are less/smaller than one-quarter of that number, because we compare the number in this sentence.
Would you please check my point?
Thank you for your time.
Best,
JianchengD868

[RonPurewal]

just imagine that there's an actual number where it says "(1/4 of) that number".

There were fewer than 30 items remaining (correct)

*There were less than 30 items remaining (incorrect)

"that number" stands for some integer, so the sentence is processed the same way.

[JianchengD868]

just imagine that there's an actual number where it says "(1/4 of) that number".

There were fewer than 30 items remaining (correct)

*There were less than 30 items remaining (incorrect)

"that number" stands for some integer, so the sentence is processed the same way.

Dear Ron,

Thank you for your quick reply.
You mean that "one-quarter that number" is 1000 drive-ins which is a countable noun, so we should use fewer.
Thank you again and have a nice weekends.

Regards,
JianchengD868

[RonPurewal]

yes.

you can also just think about the context.
what are we quantifying?
we're counting drive-ins. no other quantitative measure is mentioned or implied.
since we're counting, we can't use "less".

[JianchengD868]

yes.

you can also just think about the context.
what are we quantifying?
we're counting drive-ins. no other quantitative measure is mentioned or implied.
since we're counting, we can't use "less".

Hi Ron,
Thank you so much.
Jiancheng

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

[douyang]

Hi Ron,

Is A wrong because of "less"? Here is my thought process:
"less" is used for uncountable but the sentence refers to countable items (4000 drive-ins). In addition, "less" is not compatible with "many". In either case, A is wrong.

Thanks in advance!