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Tricky singular/plural SC

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Tricky singular/plural SC

by ildude02 » Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:55 pm
The underlined portion is in double quotes,

With its plan to create a wildlife sanctuary out of previously unused landfill, Sweden is but one of a number of industrial nations that "is accepting its responsibilty to protect endangeared species and promote" conservation.

Choices I narrowed down to,

1)Same as above
2)is accepting its responsiilty for protecting endageared species and promoting
3)are accepting their responsibility to protect endangeared species and promote

Can anyone solve this and please explain why you chose a particular choice. I'd appreciate it.
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by tar.goyal » Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:41 pm
A phrase a number of always takes the plural verb form. So the answer should be 3.
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by davidforsberg » Fri Feb 15, 2008 6:44 am
is this true????
T minus 17 hours
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:21 am
Sweden is but one of a number of industrial nations that "is accepting its responsibilty to protect endangeared species and promote" conservation.
It may seem as we have two competing rules ("one of" vs "a number of"), but we don't.

"Sweden is" means that Sweden has been taken care of - we have subject and verb, so further verbs won't necessarily have to agree with Sweden.

"a number of industrial nations" is the subject for the rest of the sentence. Therefore, we need:

"a number... that are.. their..".

Choose (3).
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Re: Tricky singular/plural SC

by stellategang » Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:03 pm
ildude02 wrote:With its plan to create a wildlife sanctuary out of previously unused landfill, Sweden is but one of a number of industrial nations that "is accepting its responsibilty to protect endangeared species and promote" conservation.

1)Same as above "IS" INCORRECT
2)is accepting its responsiilty for protecting endageared species and promoting "RESPONSIBILITY FOR" IS UNIDIOMATIC
3)are accepting their responsibility to protect endangeared species and promote ARE IS CORRECT,

ONE OF-----A NUMBER OF NATIONS THAT ARE-----

That is refers to a number of nations not Sweden, thus it is plural.

Can anyone solve this and please explain why you chose a particular choice. I'd appreciate it.
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by ildude02 » Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:30 am
thanks! Yes, the answer is "c". I got confused with Sweden since I thought it's the subject for the rest of the sentence.
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by gmat765 » Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:11 pm
nations are .... that is why the answer should be 3.
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