lunarpower wrote:

Bill@VeritasPrep wrote:The exception that you brought up ("the chairman and CEO" being the same person) is not something I recall seeing on an official question.

The official problems have tested "x and y" as a singular noun before, but never without proof.

E.g., OG13 #85, in which "owning and living..." is a singular noun.
* It's actually essential to recognize that "owning and living" is singular. If you assume by default that it's plural because of the "and", you'll eliminate the correct answer (in which "it" stands for this noun).
* The problem contains proof that "owning and living" is singular, in the form of the verb "is" (in the non-underlined part).

In general:
* "x and y" can be singular-but only if you have positive proof that it is so.
* If there's no proof otherwise, it's safe to assume that "x and y" is plural.

lunarpower wrote:

namans wrote:I am not sure if this is the best eg... say a parallel structure:
A knows that B is faster than C, that C is faster than D, and that D is faster than E

Here the that does not necessarily refer to the immediate preceding noun, but refers to A.

Is the understanding correct?

In that structure, the clauses starting with "that" are not modifiers at all. They play the role of nouns. There's probably some fancy grammar term for that; I don't know.
In any case, nouns don't refer to anything, so neither do these modifiers.

Here are some examples-first with a noun, and second with "that xxx" playing the role of the noun.

Your punctuality was a surprise to everyone.
That you were on time was a surprise to everyone.

She told me the rumor.
She told me that Rachel might be moving to Italy.

Your structure is the same. It's equivalent to, say, "A knows biology, chemistry, and physics."

For many revisionist historians, Christopher Columbus has come to personify devastation and enslavement in the name of progress that has decimated native peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

A. devastation and enslavement in the name of progress that has decimated native peoples of the Western Hemisphere
B. devastation and enslavement in the name of progress by which native peoples of the Western Hemisphere have been decimated
C. devastating and enslaving in the name of progress those native peoples of the Western Hemisphere that have been decimated
D. devastating and enslaving those native peoples of the Western hemisphere which in the name of progress are decimated.
E. the devastation and enslavement in the name of progress that have decimated the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

TheGraduate wrote:Could C and D be eliminated on the basis of the fact that what follows after personify ought to be in the noun form? i.e. devastating and enslaving are not noun form while devastation and enslavement are.

Also, could anyone please explain the error in B?