less than 和lower than的区别？

librahjx

101. Even though the direct costs of malpractice disputes amounts to a sum lower than one percent of the $541 billion the nation spent on health care last year, doctors say fear of lawsuits plays a major role in health-care inflation.

(A)  amounts to a sum lower

(B)  amounts to less

(C)  amounted to less

(D)  amounted to lower

(E)  amounted to a lower sum

答案是C

关于C和D，我想知道是不是金钱方面都是用less than的呢?所以D不对？什么时候是lower than？

Mayanist

妹妹可以先搜索看看前人的讨论，没有合适的再起新帖子比较好。

看看这个解释是否中用：

关键是看词性！OG上说less 在这里是名词充当宾语。但是longman只有less做限定词和代词的说法。不过既然代词可以做宾语，所以和OG也没有太大的矛盾了。less 做determiner （限定词，就向the和some在 the car, some cars中的用法一样）或者pronoun的第一个意思：a smaller amount or not as much （表示一个小量），有less ... than 的结构。下面是longman给的用例：

less (...) than：                She knows less than I do about it.
less than 10/100 etc：           a distance of less than 100 metres  （顺便说一句，这个例子说明关键看词性，而且推翻了新东方）

librahjx

谢谢Mayanist！

tonylin0824

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