Form 18 - Q13

[puresillylily]

The average human life span is less than forty years, except in areas where improvements in health care and preventive medicine have raised life expectancy to past the age of seventy.

(B) fewer than forty years, excepting in areas where
(C) less than forty years, excepting in areas in which
(D) fewer than forty years, except for those areas that
(E) less than forty years, excepting for those areas in which

Answer: A

Can you please kindly tell me why "D" doesn't work?
I am taking GMAT for the third time in Jan/1/2007.
(Failed twice to reach 620 in the first two times....)

[Penny Lee]

D is incorrect because when a number, such as forty years, comes out as a unit, the number should be regarded as uncountable or singular term. There are several examples in OG.

Here is some examples.
Four years have passed. (four years here count year by year, so plural verbe is required.)
Four years is a term of Presidency.(four year here is a unit)