看了关于GWD-8-41的所有贴子. 我选D

Q41: When drive-ins were at the height of their popularity in the late 1950’s, some 4,000 existed in the United States, but today there are less than one-quarter that many. A. there are less than one-quarter that many B. there are fewer than one-quarter as many 错! C. there are fewer than one-quarter of that amount

than 前面fewer (drive-ins) 和后面的one-quarter of that amount 不可比 D. the number is less than one-quarter the amount

the number (of drive-ins)is less than one-quarter the amount, less 前后都是数字,可比!

one-quarter the amount我觉得可行. E. it is less than one-quarter of that amount

再三思量: 终于还是喜欢 D. 前面为C,D百花争鸣, 还希望能有个定案.

我同意LZ的看法，也觉得应该选D

I would say

the number is smaller / greater than...

同意。当然C也有问题。除非B正确，否则没答案了

D 对的

    举个典型的例子：在美国超市里买东西，结帐时你可以选择走普通通道或快速通道。快速通道上面必定有显眼的标志：For X items or less（购买不超过X件物品的顾客可使用此道）。到目前为止我还没有看到任何一家超市用For X items or fewer。

    被许多语言学家推荐的M erriam-Webster’s Concise Dictionary of English Usage 有专门的less/fewer 条目，里面确认了这一现象：Here is the rule as it is usually encountered:fewer refers to number among things that are counted,and less refers to quantity or amount among things that are measured. This rule is simple enough and easy enough to follow. It has only one fault----it is not accurate for all usage.（通常的原则是：fewer形容可数名词，跟“数”挂钩；less形容不可数名词，跟“量”挂钩。这个原则简单易行，只有一个缺陷----它并不总能准确描述所有的用法。）

    关键问题在于，什么时候会出现特例？M erriam-Webster给出了几个大类：

1． 如果可数名词是距离、金钱或时间单位，less than 比fewer than 更常用。比如：The odometer showed less than ten thousand miles.(里程表显示车开了不到1万英里)。 He had somewhat less than a million dollars to his name when he went to Washington.(刚去华盛顿的时候，他的财产还不到100万美圆)。

    由此可见，less 比 fewer 要更灵活一些。前者同时使用于可数名词和不可数名词，而后者只适用于可数名词。M erriam-Webster总结的很精辟：If you aer a native speaker, your use of less and fewer can reliably be guided by your ear. If you are not a native speaker, you will find that the simple tule with which we started is a safe guide, except for the constructions for which we have shown less to be preferred . （如果英语是你的母语，用less 还是fewer，靠“听起来顺不顺耳”就可以判定。如果英语不是你的母语，“less 对应不可数名词、fewer对应可数名词”的简单原则可做可靠引导，除了上面列出的特例。在这些情况下，less是更好的选择。）

其实还是一个对称， （there are ) some 4,000 existed in the United States, but today (there are ) fewer than one-quarter of that amount , 再从ABC中筛选，B不说，A that many 习惯表达总不如 that amount好，其实比较的就是一个数字，一个amount.