Without adequate amounts of sleep, people's newly acquired s

[ghong14]

http://postimg.org/image/yj8al2xch/

Without adequate amounts of sleep, people's newly acquired skills and also new factual information may not get properly encoded into their memory circuits.

A. Without adequate amounts of sleep, people's newly acquired skills and also
B. Without the adequate amount of sleep they need, people's newly acquired skills and even
C. If they do not have adequate amounts of sleep, people's newly acquired skills and even
D. If people do not get adequate amounts of sleep, newly acquired skills and even
E. If people do not get the adequate amount of sleep they need, newly acquired skills and also

I was between answer choice D and E and was not sure which one is correct. The only difference that I thought was relevant was amounts of sleep v. amount of sleep. Is there some other grammatical rule I can use to eliminate between D and E and some of the other choices?

[ghong14]

Any suggestion on Amounts v. Amount? I know there is a clear idiomatic decision to favor number over numbers. Wondering if the same applies to amounts.....

[RonPurewal]

Any suggestion on Amounts v. Amount?

just think about what you're actually trying to say. if you're talking about more than one amount, then use "amounts". if you're only talking about one amount, then, just "amount".

e.g.,
The amounts of both settlements have been reduced by 50%.
--> we're talking about two different legal settlements, so two different dollar amounts.

in the problem at hand, we're only talking about one amount, so, "amount".

I know there is a clear idiomatic decision to favor number over numbers.

nope. what you "know" here is actually wrong.

this is not an idiom issue at all; again, it's just an issue of saying what the sentence actually means.
if you're talking about more than one number, then use "numbers". if you're only talking about one number, then, "number".

e.g.
The numbers of women and minorities applying for the scholarship have doubled.
--> this is a perfectly respectable sentence. the meaning is that the # of women has doubled and that the # of minorities has also doubled.

[RonPurewal]

I was between answer choice D and E and was not sure which one is correct. The only difference that I thought was relevant was amounts of sleep v. amount of sleep. Is there some other grammatical rule I can use to eliminate between D and E and some of the other choices?

"adequate" + "they need" = redundant.
this is the only thing unequivocally wrong in choice (e).

[750plus]

Dear Team at Manhattan,

I am bit confused about the parallelism on the choice D

If people do not get adequate amounts of sleep, newly acquired skills and even new factual information may not get properly encoded into their memory circuits.

How are the phrases "newly acquired skills" and "new factual information" parallel.

Thank You.

Regards

[RonPurewal]

noun || noun.

parallel structures do not need exactly matching "decoration" (modifiers, etc).
clearly, things should match as much as possible, but it's usually not possible for real-life parallel structures to match perfectly.

e.g.,

I want a steak and a Diet Coke.
parallel.

I want a T-bone steak butterfly-cut into two parts, one cooked medium-well and topped with garlic sauce and the other cooked medium-rare and served with spinach, and a Diet Coke.
...still parallel.
here, i have lots more to say about my steak than about my diet coke (a fact that should not surprise anyone).

[750plus]

noun || noun.

parallel structures do not need exactly matching "decoration" (modifiers, etc).
clearly, things should match as much as possible, but it's usually not possible for real-life parallel structures to match perfectly.

e.g.,

I want a steak and a Diet Coke.
parallel.

I want a T-bone steak butterfly-cut into two parts, one cooked medium-well and topped with garlic sauce and the other cooked medium-rare and served with spinach, and a Diet Coke.
...still parallel.
here, i have lots more to say about my steak than about my diet coke (a fact that should not surprise anyone).

Awesome point(s)

I have understood it now.

Thank You.

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

[sdfsdfsdfs481]

How to choose from these twos?

C. If they do not have adequate amounts of sleep, people's newly acquired skills and even
D. If people do not get adequate amounts of sleep, newly acquired skills and even

In my opinion, (C) has "they" and it refers to people. Is this incorrect because people's is a adjective and it cannot refer to people?

[RonPurewal]

perhaps, but you can also dismiss C because it doesn't make sense. if you refer to "people's newly acquired skills", then you're implying that the people have already acquired those skills.

e.g.,
I can't afford clothes.
(= clothes i don't already have)

i can't afford my clothes.
(= the ones i already have... e.g., they're expensive designer clothes, and now my credit card bill is killing me)

[RonPurewal]

this problem appears to be from the PAID gmat prep software. (per my understanding, none of the free problems have answer keys.) so i'm going to lock this thread.

if i am mistaken, please start another thread, with proof that the problem is in the FREE software. (then i could just unlock this one.)