OG 12th edition #5 - sentence correction

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OG 12th edition #5 - sentence correction

by nickhar130 » Mon Nov 15, 2010 7:09 pm
Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer

(a) ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only
(b) rank as the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed
(c) has the rank of the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed
(d) are the nation's third leading causes of death, surpassed only
(e) have been ranked as the nation's third leading causes of death, only surpassed


Isn't "Diabetes" the subject and "ranks" is the verb? Diabetes is plural therefore "rank" should be without the s because it needs to be plural also. Please explain?
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by saurabh_maths » Mon Nov 15, 2010 7:37 pm
IMO ans shd be A.

B - 'rank' does not match with singular subject 'Diabetes'
C - No need to put 'has' in the sentence.
D - 'are' does not go with singular subject 'Diabetes'
E - subject verb disagreement, wordy and awkward.

Whats the OA ?

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by Rezinka » Tue Nov 16, 2010 3:25 am
@nickhar130
'Diabetes ' is singular. The 's' does not make it plural.
E.g. 'James' is the name of 1 person.

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by kapur.arnav » Tue Nov 16, 2010 9:21 am
nickhar130 wrote:Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer

(a) ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only
(b) rank as the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed
(c) has the rank of the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed
(d) are the nation's third leading causes of death, surpassed only
(e) have been ranked as the nation's third leading causes of death, only surpassed


Isn't "Diabetes" the subject and "ranks" is the verb? Diabetes is plural therefore "rank" should be without the s because it needs to be plural also. Please explain?
Diabetes is singular and not plural... if it ends with s it doesn't imply that its plural... cancer, fever, flu etc etc are all singular...

(a) ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only - correct
(b) rank as the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed - should be ranks...
(c) has the rank of the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed - past perfect is not reqd..
(d) are the nation's third leading causes of death, surpassed only - same as b
(e) have been ranked as the nation's third leading causes of death, only surpassed - same as b

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