一道颇有难度的语法题（PREP上的），有兴趣的童鞋帮忙解答下

UlysessHope

选什么？D么？

tears4ever

BBBB

UlysessHope

哦~原来答案是B
下面是在manhattan forum搜到的有关C，D项为什么错的解释
recall that "amount" is a construction that can only be used to refer to UNCOUNTABLE quantities -- i.e., continuous quantities / mass nouns, which are not divided into distinctly countable units.
for instance, you can have an "amount" of water, furniture, etc., but you CANNOT have an "amount" of people, items, etc.

this sentence is very clearly speaking about a countable quantity -- the number (not "amount") of drive-in theaters. since that's countable, any choice with "amount" can be eliminated immediately.

zj_stpaul

When drive-ins were at the height of their popularity in the late 1950s, some 4000 existed in the United States, but today there are less than one-quarter that many.

A. there are less than one-quarter that many less只能修饰不可数名词
B. there are fewer than one-quarter as many
C. there are fewer than one-quarter of that amount
D. the number is less than one-quarter the amount 不管意思上怎么样，数字比大小，也不能用less啊
E. it is less than one-quarter of that amount it没有恰当的eligible的antecedent，而且意思上我们都知道应该指drive-ins(i.e., restaurants)，复述

正确答案在回复后会显示，希望大家给出自己认为合理的解释，谢谢了！

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-- by 会员 纳什总冠军 (2011/10/6 21:42:46)

只剩下B和C，C的错误是比较对象变成了drive-ins vs the number，不对称

我自己也选错了，上述解释是参考了国外论坛的，觉得有道理。

xinyuan616

选什么

chu9qlwy

C?

875023276

dddd

princess89

B吧

Cecilia900324

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

52406zql

B跟C在纠结