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myth of "One of ...": valid?

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by gmatdriller » Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:01 pm
The answer to the question below does not follow the structure
"One of the X's that/who <plural>"

In good years, the patchwork of green fields that surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them in the area just for the season.
(A) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them
(B) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of whom are
(C) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of who are
(D) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustle with farm workers, many of which
(E) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many are
OA is B

Could someone clarify whether the classifications below are still valid.

Myth of "One of.."


1. One of the X's that/who <plural>
2. One of the X's <singular>
3. Only one of the X's <singular>
4. Only one of the X's that/who <plural>
5. The only one of the X's that/who <singular>
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Source: — Sentence Correction |
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by Night reader » Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:30 pm
Please tell us the source of this question, ok?

below only number 4 and 5 expressions are plural, an the others are singular
gmatdriller wrote: Could someone clarify whether the classifications below are still valid.

Myth of "One of.."


1. One of the X's that/who <plural>
2. One of the X's <singular>
3. Only one of the X's <singular>
4. Only one of the X's that/who <plural>
5. The only one of the X's that/who <singular>
In your question though it's not the case when "One of the X's that/who <plural>" is used. It's the case of typical modifier error mis-introduced by examiner in this question. The sentence says that - "the patchwork surrounds ... town ..." AND "the patchwork ... bustles with farm workers ..."

The correct way of presenting this sentence would be - "In good years, the patchwork of green fields, that surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town, bustles with farm workers, many of whom are in the area just for the season.

as you see the examiner made likelihood of "run-on" mistake in this sentence
gmatdriller wrote:The answer to the question below does not follow the structure
"One of the X's that/who <plural>"

In good years, the patchwork of green fields that surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them in the area just for the season.
(A) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them
(B) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of whom are
(C) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of who are
(D) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustle with farm workers, many of which
(E) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many are
OA is B

Could someone clarify whether the classifications below are still valid.

Myth of "One of.."


1. One of the X's that/who <plural>
2. One of the X's <singular>
3. Only one of the X's <singular>
4. Only one of the X's that/who <plural>
5. The only one of the X's that/who <singular>
My knowledge frontiers came to evolve the GMATPill's methods - the credited study means to boost the Verbal competence. I really like their videos, especially for RC, CR and SC. You do check their study methods at https://www.gmatpill.com
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by gmatdriller » Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:42 am
Accepted:
the question is not a member of "One of X's that/who..."

[/spoiler]In your question though it's not the case when "One of
the X's that/who <plural>" is used. It's the case of typical modifier
error mis-introduced by examiner in this question. The sentence
says that - "the patchwork surround... town ..." AND "the
patchwork... bustles with farm workers ..."

An excerpt from your post clarifies.
Thanks.
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by MAAJ » Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:55 am
In good years, the patchwork of green fields that surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them in the area just for the season.

(A) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them
(B) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of whom are
(C) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of who are
(D) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustle with farm workers, many of which
(E) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many are

This SC is about Subject-verb agreement + Pronuns/Modifiers
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by Jim@Grockit » Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:26 am
This one is hard! Is it the fields that surround San Joaquin, or a patchwork (of fields) that surrounds? Grammatically both are correct, but only one answer correctly handles the farmers.
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by MAAJ » Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:28 am
Nice. Didn't look it that way. Thanks guru!
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by Night reader » Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:44 pm
@Jim: are we on the same page - don't kill my confidence // I got G-day in 2 weeks :(
Jim@Grockit wrote:This one is hard! Is it the fields that surround San Joaquin, or a patchwork (of fields) that surrounds? Grammatically both are correct, but only one answer correctly handles the farmers.
My knowledge frontiers came to evolve the GMATPill's methods - the credited study means to boost the Verbal competence. I really like their videos, especially for RC, CR and SC. You do check their study methods at https://www.gmatpill.com
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by gmat_perfect » Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:43 am
In good years, the patchwork of green fields that surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them in the area just for the season.
(A) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them
(B) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of whom are
(C) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of who are
(D) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustle with farm workers, many of which
(E) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many are

The issues:

1. The words set off by COMMAS are non-essential modifiers; therefore, the skeleton of the sentence is:

In good years many of whom in the area just for the season.

The above sentence does not have a finite verb. Now search for the options that did not insert a verb.
A. Does not have verb. Eliminate it.
B. Has a verb.-------keep it.
C. Has a verb-------keep it.
D. Does not have a verb. Eliminate it.
E. Has a verb..........Keep it.

Now, second phase:

the patchwork of green fields that surround...

here, eliminate the middle man. We get the following:

the patchwork that surround..........

Patchwork is singular, so surround should be "surrounds".
--> Eliminate C and D.

we are between B and E.

In the option E, "Many are......" is problematic. We need "many of whom". Eliminate E.

[spoiler]Answer: B[/spoiler]
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