It is not in the American interest to have conditions of extreme tension, even less of war, between the Soviet Union and China...
less people
[原译]中苏之间极为紧张的局势对美国不利,发生战争则更不利……
请问 less of war 是指发生战争吗？
less of = short of，因此 less of war 应为“不发生战争”。类例：
Parking is less of a problem with a small car. (The Oxford Duden German Dictionary) 对于小汽车来说, 停车场地不会有什么问题。
[试译]中苏之间的极为紧张的局势，即使不发生战争，也不符合美国的利益。
（1）The industrial trend is the direction of more machines and less people. (全国研考)
(2) Because there were members present tonight were last night, we must wait until the next (全国研考)
上述试题要求将 less 改为 fewer。但我认为 less people (members) 的说法是符合惯用法的。不知您手头有无这方面的证据。
出题者的意图是: fewer 用在可数复数名词之前, 而 less 仅用于不可数名词之前。但是, 惯用法并不像上面所描述的那样简单, 而呈现出错综复杂的局面。正像 R. Ourk 等在 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language 中所指的, “There is a tendency to use less (instead of fewer) and least (instead of fewest) also with count nouns. (有一种倾向, 将 less (而不用 fewer) 和 least (而不用 fewest) 与可数名词连用):
You've made less mistakes than last time."
R. Quirk 等人虽然指出,上述用法受到一些人的指责,但并没有把上面的句子判为错句。接着他们举了一个被人们普遍接受的例子:
No less than fifty people were killed in the accident. (CGEL, p. 263) 这次事故中死者多达50人。
R. Quirk 等人在 CGEL (§ 6.53) 中还进一步指出，“传统的规定语法反对把 less 和 least 与复数名词连用。然而，它们在非正式英语中，却用得十分广泛。”(p. 385)，Swan 在 PEU 中也曾明确地指出：“从理论上讲，fewer 用在复数名词之前，而 less 用于不可数名词之前。但是在现代英语中，特别是在非正式语体中，许多人在复数名词之前也用 less，而不用 fewer。”
The Right Word at the Right Time 的作者们也说:有时 fewer 在复数名词前的“正确”用法比“不正确的”less 显得更加笨拙。请看下面的例句：
We want a few more buses and a few less cars. 我们想增加几辆公共汽车,而减少几辆轿车。
下面是我们查到的例句：
-
There used to be more women than men in the country, but now there are (CGEL) 以前这个国家女人比男人多，而现在女人比男人少了。
-
I've got less friends this year than ever before. (PEU) 今年我的朋友比往年少。
-
If only there were less holes in the roof! (LDCE) 要是屋顶上的洞少一些,该多好!
不难看出,上面的考题不仅无助于提高学生的英语水平,而且还会干扰他们去掌握活生生的英语实际。
据此,我们有理由提出,在今后的英语考试中不宜再把 less people 这种被语言学家们宣布为一种惯用法倾向的格式简单地判为错误。在英语考试中可以回避此类考题。