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SC Subject verb agreement

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by Stockmoose16 » Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:14 pm
In the following question, OA is B. But I'm confused, because "a new species" is a plural subject. Shouldn't the connecting verb be "live," not lives"?

Researchers have discovered a new species of sparrow that lives only in cypress groves, almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees and whose coloring is completely different from all other sparrows.

A) that lives only in cypress groves, almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows in cypress trees and whose coloring is completely different from
B) that lives only in cypress groves, is almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and has coloring completely different from that of
C)living only in cypress groves, is almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and whose coloring is completely different from
D)that lives only in cypress groves, almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and whose coloring is completely different from that of
E)living only in cypress groves, depending almost wholly on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and having coloring completely different than
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by loki.gmat » Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:33 pm
B seems to a run on sentence.

...................in cypress groves, is almost wholly dependent ........................

now just a comma (,) is not enough to connect these two parts of the sentence.




Thanks!
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by iwill » Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:47 pm
IMHO B.

C,D can be eliminated because of "whose coloring.." - We are talking about the sparrow, not the researchers.
A - in Cyprus tree and usage of "whose.. "
E can eliminated coz of "having .. "

Only B is left.

Thanks,
Iwill
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by Vignesh.4384 » Fri Aug 08, 2008 1:47 am
IMO B.

B & D are are srrous conders.

A & C compares the colouring of sparrows to other sparrows.. This is woring.

E - different than is wrong+ the ssame error in A & C.

B is a better option than D(pronoun error )
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Re: SC Subject verb agreement

by yogesh_kkk » Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:45 am
Stockmoose16 wrote:In the following question, OA is B. But I'm confused, because "a new species" is a plural subject. Shouldn't the connecting verb be "live," not lives"?
It is the sparrow that lives and not the new species. that modifies the sparrow
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Re: SC Subject verb agreement

by Stockmoose16 » Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:28 am
yogesh_kkk wrote:
Stockmoose16 wrote:In the following question, OA is B. But I'm confused, because "a new species" is a plural subject. Shouldn't the connecting verb be "live," not lives"?
It is the sparrow that lives and not the new species. that modifies the sparrow
Can you explain this more? In the MGMAT book, it states that to determine the subject of a sentence, always get rid of the "of" clause. If you get rid "of sparrows," that makes "the new species" the subject (plural).
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by dbart06 » Fri Aug 08, 2008 9:30 am
IMHO "a new species" is singular not plural. We are not talking about 2 or more species, just "a" species.
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by yogesh_kkk » Fri Aug 08, 2008 10:00 am
yes it is true that we need to remove the "of clause" but make sure what does "that" modifies

Researchers have discovered a new species of sparrow that lives only in cypress groves, is almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and has coloring completely different from that of all other sparrows.

if we remove the underline part the sentence still make sense
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by kiranlegend » Fri Aug 08, 2008 10:12 am
B is certainly the best option in there.. but as one of the above posters pointed out, B seems to be a runon sentence..

what is the source?
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by sachin.ranjit » Fri Aug 08, 2008 10:22 am
a new species of sparrow that lives

In the above sentence.. A new species is the key.

Species can be both singular and plural.

If the sentence read a number of new species of birds we would have had to select live

Since its A new species we have to select lives

Hope this clarifies.

Thanks
Sachin
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