quite/a little ?

[kultigin]

If peace in the office holds for______longer, my personal efforts towards maintaining it may start to look appreciable to the manager.


A) no
B) more
C) quite
D) very
E) a little

I say "c". What would say and why ?

[Kluska]

I'd say E is correct

[sash2008]

I also go for "a little".

[kultigin]

I still say "c". It just doesn't make any sense to me why "qutie" doesn't fit there...

[sash2008]

I think that "quite" is not used before comparatives.

[Soup]

If peace in the office holds for______longer, my personal efforts towards maintaining it may start to look appreciable to the manager.


A) no
B) more
C) quite
D) very
E) a little

I say "c". What would say and why ?

I agree with sash2008.

Note that,

With a comparative we can only use rather, not quite.

The meeting took rather longer than I expected. (NOT quite longer)


With some adjectives quite means 'absolutely' or 'completely'. These include: absurd, certain, different, hopeless, impossible, ridiculous, right, sure, true, wrong.

I'm quite certain about this. (= absolutely certain)
Are you sure that's quite right? (= completely right)

Source

[philo2009]

The only instance of 'quite' + comparative that springs to mind is the now rather old-fashioned expression 'quite better', meaning 'fully recovered' (from illness). Otherwise, the combination is, to say the least, highly unlikely.

[sash2008]

The only instance of 'quite' + comparative that springs to mind is the now rather old-fashioned expression 'quite better', meaning 'fully recovered' (from illness). Otherwise, the combination is, to say the least, highly unlikely.

Ok. If it is "rather better", what does it mean?

[matximessi]

the right answer on my opinion is A.

[bhaisahab]

the right answer on my opinion is A.

Why; can you explain?