Sentence Correction

In the most common procedure for harvesting forage crops such as alfalfa, as much as 20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground.
(A) which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell
(B) the most nutritious of all parts of the plant, shatter and fall
(C) the parts of the plant which were most nutritious, will shatter and fall
(D) the most nutritious parts of the plant, shatters and falls.
(E) parts of the plant which are the most nutritious, have shattered and fallen

My doubt is here "shatter and fall" are acting as verb or what...????
if they are acting as verb then why the OA is D??????

atulmangal wrote:In the most common procedure for harvesting forage crops such as alfalfa, as much as 20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground.
(A) which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell
(B) the most nutritious of all parts of the plant, shatter and fall
(C) the parts of the plant which were most nutritious, will shatter and fall
(D) the most nutritious parts of the plant, shatters and falls.
(E) parts of the plant which are the most nutritious, have shattered and fallen

My doubt is here "shatter and fall" are acting as verb or what...????
if they are acting as verb then why the OA is D??????

The skeleton of the sentence:

20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground.

If we eliminate the non-essential part, we get the following:

20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material shattered and fell to the ground.

--> "Shattered and fell" are verbs.

Some concepts:

1. In case of appositive, we should not use "X, which/who is Y".

Example:

MS Dhoni, who is the Indian cricket captain, made fifty. [Incorrect]

MS Dhoni, the Indian cricket captain, made fifty. [Correct]

I have read Gitanjoli, which is the collection of poems. [Incorrect]

I have read Gitanjoli, the collection of poems. [Correct]

Apply the same in A, C, and E, and you find the errors.

In B, "shatter and fall" does not agree with the singular subject 20% of uncountable.

Answer is D.

Thanks.

gmat_perfect wrote:

atulmangal wrote:In the most common procedure for harvesting forage crops such as alfalfa, as much as 20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground.
(A) which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell
(B) the most nutritious of all parts of the plant, shatter and fall
(C) the parts of the plant which were most nutritious, will shatter and fall
(D) the most nutritious parts of the plant, shatters and falls.
(E) parts of the plant which are the most nutritious, have shattered and fallen

My doubt is here "shatter and fall" are acting as verb or what...????
if they are acting as verb then why the OA is D??????

The skeleton of the sentence:

20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground.

If we eliminate the non-essential part, we get the following:

20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material shattered and fell to the ground.

--> "Shattered and fell" are verbs.

Some concepts:

1. In case of appositive, we should not use "X, which/who is Y".

Example:

MS Dhoni, who is the Indian cricket captain, made fifty. [Incorrect]

MS Dhoni, the Indian cricket captain, made fifty. [Correct]

I have read Gitanjoli, which is the collection of poems. [Incorrect]

I have read Gitanjoli, the collection of poems. [Correct]

Apply the same in A, C, and E, and you find the errors.

In B, "shatter and fall" does not agree with the singular subject 20% of uncountable.

Answer is D.

Thanks.

Thanks a ton Gmat_perfect...awesome explanation

I made a mistake, i thought that the verbs are attached with "nutritious parts" in the modifying phrase and thats y got confused...
u cleared my doubt...

Cheers

atulmangal wrote:i thought that the verbs are attached with "nutritious parts" in the modifying phrase
Cheers

The verb 'attached' to 'nutritious' is 'is'. Also, there is nothing wrong with the usage of 'which' in option A in this sentence. The issue with A is the illogical usage of Past tense ('shattered' and 'fell'). Have come across this question before and consider it a masterpiece (hope you figured out why B is not the answer).

atulmangal wrote:

gmat_perfect wrote:

atulmangal wrote:In the most common procedure for harvesting forage crops such as alfalfa, as much as 20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground.
(A) which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell
(B) the most nutritious of all parts of the plant, shatter and fall
(C) the parts of the plant which were most nutritious, will shatter and fall
(D) the most nutritious parts of the plant, shatters and falls.
(E) parts of the plant which are the most nutritious, have shattered and fallen

My doubt is here "shatter and fall" are acting as verb or what...????
if they are acting as verb then why the OA is D??????

The skeleton of the sentence:

20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground.

If we eliminate the non-essential part, we get the following:

20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material shattered and fell to the ground.

--> "Shattered and fell" are verbs.

Some concepts:

1. In case of appositive, we should not use "X, which/who is Y".

Example:

MS Dhoni, who is the Indian cricket captain, made fifty. [Incorrect]

MS Dhoni, the Indian cricket captain, made fifty. [Correct]

I have read Gitanjoli, which is the collection of poems. [Incorrect]

I have read Gitanjoli, the collection of poems. [Correct]

Apply the same in A, C, and E, and you find the errors.

In B, "shatter and fall" does not agree with the singular subject 20% of uncountable.

Answer is D.

Thanks.

Thanks a ton Gmat_perfect...awesome explanation

I made a mistake, i thought that the verbs are attached with "nutritious parts" in the modifying phrase and thats y got confused...
u cleared my doubt...

Cheers

glad it helped.

You are doing well. Your questions are good.
Go on.

gmat_perfect wrote:

atulmangal wrote:

gmat_perfect wrote:

atulmangal wrote:In the most common procedure for harvesting forage crops such as alfalfa, as much as 20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground.
(A) which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell
(B) the most nutritious of all parts of the plant, shatter and fall
(C) the parts of the plant which were most nutritious, will shatter and fall
(D) the most nutritious parts of the plant, shatters and falls.
(E) parts of the plant which are the most nutritious, have shattered and fallen

My doubt is here "shatter and fall" are acting as verb or what...????
if they are acting as verb then why the OA is D??????

The skeleton of the sentence:

20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground.

If we eliminate the non-essential part, we get the following:

20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material shattered and fell to the ground.

--> "Shattered and fell" are verbs.

Some concepts:

1. In case of appositive, we should not use "X, which/who is Y".

Example:

MS Dhoni, who is the Indian cricket captain, made fifty. [Incorrect]

MS Dhoni, the Indian cricket captain, made fifty. [Correct]

I have read Gitanjoli, which is the collection of poems. [Incorrect]

I have read Gitanjoli, the collection of poems. [Correct]

Apply the same in A, C, and E, and you find the errors.

In B, "shatter and fall" does not agree with the singular subject 20% of uncountable.

Answer is D.

Thanks.

Thanks a ton Gmat_perfect...awesome explanation

I made a mistake, i thought that the verbs are attached with "nutritious parts" in the modifying phrase and thats y got confused...
u cleared my doubt...

Cheers

glad it helped.

You are doing well. Your questions are good.
Go on.

Thanks for the motivation...can u please help with this question, please follow the link, please read my doubt and if possible please clear..
https://www.beatthegmat.com/household-la ... tml#348743

Could someone explain more on B ?

@Gmat-perfect: it has subject verb agreement because of 20 percent of uncountable ? Can you explain more please

GMATMadeEasy wrote:Could someone explain more on B ?

@Gmat-perfect: it has subject verb agreement because of 20 percent of uncountable ? Can you explain more please

X% of Y:

Whether X% of Y will be singular or plural depends on the NUMBER of Y.

If Y is SINGULAR, "X% of Y" is SINGULAR.

20% of the CD has already been played.

If Y is PLURAL, "X% of Y" is PLURAL.

20% of the songs have been played.

Thanks.

Thanks for this important note.
Added to my reference material

gmat_perfect wrote:

GMATMadeEasy wrote:Could someone explain more on B ?

@Gmat-perfect: it has subject verb agreement because of 20 percent of uncountable ? Can you explain more please

X% of Y:

Whether X% of Y will be singular or plural depends on the NUMBER of Y.

If Y is SINGULAR, "X% of Y" is SINGULAR.

20% of the CD has already been played.

If Y is PLURAL, "X% of Y" is PLURAL.

20% of the songs have been played.

Thanks.

@pesfunk,

Thanks for the compliment.

One important note:

Compliment Vs Complement:

Compliment:
a polite expression of praise or admiration:she paid me an enormous compliment. an act or circumstance that implies praise or respect:it's a compliment to the bride to dress up on her special day.

(compliments) congratulations or praise expressed to someone:my compliments on your cooking.

Complement:
1 a thing that contributes extra features to something else in such a way as to improve or emphasize its quality:local ales provide the perfect complement to fine food.
2 [in singular] a number or quantity of something, especially that required to make a group complete:at the moment we have a full complement of staff
Grammarone or more words, phrases, or clauses governed by a verb (or by a nominalization or a predicative adjective) that complete the meaning of the predicate. In generative grammar, all the constituents of a sentence that are governed by a verb form the complement.