Each and Every: Singular sensations

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Cellular telephone conversations, though sounding like a continuous stream of conversation, are in reality composed of millions of tiny audio frames, each containing only a fraction of a second of sound wrapped inside their digital envelope


A.
B.all containing only a fraction of a second long and wrapped inside its
C. all the sounds only a fraction of a second long and wrapped inside its
D. every one containing only a fraction of a second of sound wrapped inside their
E. each containing only a fraction of a second of sound wrapped inside a

Source: Veritas Prep..
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by nervesofsteel » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:08 am
IMO E has sub/verb agreement..
each is singular....

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by max37274 » Sun Mar 07, 2010 3:17 pm
Between A and D, A is more precise

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by Phirozz » Sun Mar 07, 2010 4:41 pm
[email protected] wrote:Cellular telephone conversations, though sounding like a continuous stream of conversation, are in reality composed of millions of tiny audio frames, each containing only a fraction of a second of sound wrapped inside their digital envelope


A.
B.all containing only a fraction of a second long and wrapped inside its
C. all the sounds only a fraction of a second long and wrapped inside its
D. every one containing only a fraction of a second of sound wrapped inside their
E. each containing only a fraction of a second of sound wrapped inside a

Source: Veritas Prep..
IMO E

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by [email protected] » Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:39 pm
OA is E but my answer was A.

I used the rule -
If each follows a subject, it doesn't have any bearing on it.

For instance:
Three cats, each are .....

What am I missing?

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by aerodan1 » Sun Mar 07, 2010 6:37 pm
I think this question is somewhat questionable. The subject is conversations (modified by cellular telephone), and is therefore plural. As one poster pointed out, the word "each" comes after the subject, so instead of saying each conversation, we are saying "they each". This all makes sense until you see that the sentence ends with the noun envelope, which is singular. So the possesive pronoun preceding envelope must agree with envelope, and therefore must be singular. Perhaps I am wrong, but I would like to know from an authoritative source instead of everyone wondering what's going on here.

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by bpgen » Sun Mar 07, 2010 7:12 pm
[email protected] wrote:OA is E but my answer was A.

I used the rule -
If each follows a subject, it doesn't have any bearing on it.

For instance:
Three cats, each are .....

What am I missing?
Here 'each' actually referring to 'each of the frames', therefore my take would be [spoiler]'E'[/spoiler]

Hi [email protected],
You are right, let me explain you in more detail:
Your sentence: "Three cats, each are ..... "--correct. Let me re-write it:

If I re-write it as following,then verb should be plural:
"Three cats, they each are ..... " ---Correct, as per grammar rule that if 'each'/'every' follows subject/object, then it has no bearing on verb. Here verb will be based on object 'they'.

But if I re-write it as following, then verb should be singular:
" Each of these three cats IS..... " --Correct, I.e any subject preceded by 'each'/'every' should have singular verb form.

Hope this helps.
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by [email protected] » Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:13 pm
Sorry I still can't comprehend how the statement refers to 'each of the frames'...
Can you please explain how the frames actually refers to 'each of the frames'

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by bpgen » Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:31 pm
I'm saying "each containing only a fraction of a second of sound wrapped inside their digital envelope" is just modifying 'frames'
and hence 'each' referes to 'frames' not 'Cellular telephone conversations'
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by Phirozz » Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:51 pm
[email protected] wrote:OA is E but my answer was A.

I used the rule -
If each follows a subject, it doesn't have any bearing on it.

For instance:
Three cats, each are .....

What am I missing?
A cannot be the answer because of 'their'. 'each' is singular whereas 'their' is plural

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