原题 OG17-679
In 1979 lack of rain reduced India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent less than those of the 1978 harvest.A. less than those of the 1978 harvest
B. less than the 1978 harvest
C. less than 1978D. fewer than 1978
E. fewer than that of India's 1978 harvest
总结一下:补充一个manhanttan对于less/fewer在计量单位unit nouns的用法
No, size makes no difference. We always use "fewer" for countable and "less" for uncountable. Here, we use "less" rather than "fewer" because we are comparing the overall size of production, rather than the specific number of tons. This generally happens with weights and measures. For instance, I would say "I weigh less than 200 pounds," not fewer, because I am talking about a measurement, not a group of things. I'd also say "I want less than 3 ounces of coffee" or "I have less than 5 feet of rope left." Sure, we can count pounds, ounces, and feet, but we are using them to talk about an amount, not a number. 3 ounces of coffee is a way of saying how much coffee you have, but we're not counting individual coffee beans. Similarly, in the original problem, we're not counting individual grains of rice; rather, we're measuring overall rice production.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-1979-lack-of-rain-reduced-india-s-rice-production-to-137020.html
个人总结:
40 millions tons is a huge number.
50 dollars is enough.
类似这种句子是把50 dollars看作一个整体总量——“50刀这么多钱”来讲的,就是不可数名词(而不是强调50张bills——50张bills就是复数名词可数了,而且万一人家是两美元的bill呢?那就是25张啦!所以一般这种计量都是指的整体啦)。以上40m tons同理,是一个production的总量,所以是不可数用less。
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