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Within the first few weeks of school

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Within the first few weeks of school

by kvcpk » Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:38 am
Within the first few weeks of school, John discovered that there was limited teacher involvement and an abundance of administrative hassle.

A. John discovered that there was limited teacher involvement
B. John discovered that there were limited teacher involvement
C. John discovered limited teacher involvement
D. John would discover that there was limited teacher involvement
E. John had discovered that there was limited teacher involvement

Explain your answer.
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by reply2spg » Sun Jul 11, 2010 4:48 pm
IMO B
kvcpk wrote:Within the first few weeks of school, John discovered that there was limited teacher involvement and an abundance of administrative hassle.

A. John discovered that there was limited teacher involvement -- John discovered A and B, so we need such a plural verb as were and not was
B. John discovered that there were limited teacher involvement -- Correct
C. John discovered limited teacher involvement -- fragment sentence, verb is missing
D. John would discover that there was limited teacher involvement -- No need of conditional sentence
E. John had discovered that there was limited teacher involvement -- No need of had

Explain your answer.
OA please
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by adi_800 » Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:31 pm
I would like to go with B...
But B does not maintain the ||sm between limited teacher involvement and an abundance of administrative hassle.

C is not a fragment. It contains the verb discovered, which can act as the main verb of the sentence.
D is wrong coz u r nt predicting future from the past. So, would is wrong.
E- No need of past perfect...
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by kvcpk » Sun Jul 11, 2010 9:03 pm
OA is B.

My Doubt here is how do we know that "limited teacher involvement and an abundance of administrative hassle. " is one single term. Because its a compound term, we are using "were"

But why shouldnt we read it as "there was limited teacher involvement" and an abundance of....?
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by viju9162 » Sun Jul 11, 2010 9:58 pm
We can read the sentence like this:

John discovered that there were limited teacher involvement and there were an abundance of administrative hassle.

But not

John discovered that there was limited teacher involvement - First part

John discovered that an abundance of administrative hassle. - Second part ( no proper subject and verb reference here)


Thanks,
Viju
"Native of" is used for a individual while "Native to" is used for a large group
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by kvcpk » Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:04 pm
viju9162 wrote:We can read the sentence like this:

John discovered that there were limited teacher involvement and there were an abundance of administrative hassle.

But not

John discovered that there was limited teacher involvement - First part

John discovered that an abundance of administrative hassle. - Second part ( no proper subject and verb reference here)


Thanks,
Viju
That makes sense.. Thank you!!
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by paes » Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:39 am
adi_800 wrote:I would like to go with B...
But B does not maintain the ||sm between limited teacher involvement and an abundance of administrative hassle.

C is not a fragment. It contains the verb discovered, which can act as the main verb of the sentence.
D is wrong coz u r nt predicting future from the past. So, would is wrong.
E- No need of past perfect...
Within the first few weeks of school, John discovered that there were limited teacher involvement and that an abundance of administrative hassle.

In B : 'that' is looking missing.
Can somebody explain : 'that' is must here or not ??
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by samarpan_bschool » Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:52 am
viju9162 wrote:We can read the sentence like this:

John discovered that there were limited teacher involvement and there were an abundance of administrative hassle.

But not

John discovered that there was limited teacher involvement - First part

John discovered that an abundance of administrative hassle. - Second part ( no proper subject and verb reference here)


Thanks,
Viju
Hi Viju, Good point. However, i think 'There' cannot act as a 'noun'. I read in Ron's post that if the verb does not have a logical noun preceding it, then we should look for the noun after the verb. By that logic, the noun for the verb 'were' is ' limited teacher involvement' and 'abundance of administrative hassle'.

Also find the link attached: https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/there (look for pronoun in this link)
Last edited by samarpan_bschool on Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by tomada » Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:32 am
I thought that choosing "was" or "were" applied only to countable nouns, which is not the case with "limited teacher involvement" and "administrative hassle".
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by viju9162 » Tue Jul 13, 2010 12:18 am
Dear Samarpan,

Thanks for this!

Regards,
Viju
"Native of" is used for a individual while "Native to" is used for a large group
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by Ritwik » Tue Jul 13, 2010 12:49 am
Why C is wrong?
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by adi_800 » Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:39 am
paes wrote:
adi_800 wrote:I would like to go with B...
But B does not maintain the ||sm between limited teacher involvement and an abundance of administrative hassle.

C is not a fragment. It contains the verb discovered, which can act as the main verb of the sentence.
D is wrong coz u r nt predicting future from the past. So, would is wrong.
E- No need of past perfect...
Within the first few weeks of school, John discovered that there were limited teacher involvement and that an abundance of administrative hassle.

In B : 'that' is looking missing.
Can somebody explain : 'that' is must here or not ??
||sm starts from were onwards and not from that onwards.
He discovered two things...those two things should be parallel.
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by pnk » Tue Jul 13, 2010 6:26 am
paes wrote:
adi_800 wrote:I would like to go with B...
But B does not maintain the ||sm between limited teacher involvement and an abundance of administrative hassle.

C is not a fragment. It contains the verb discovered, which can act as the main verb of the sentence.
D is wrong coz u r nt predicting future from the past. So, would is wrong.
E- No need of past perfect...
Within the first few weeks of school, John discovered that there were limited teacher involvement and that an abundance of administrative hassle.

In B : 'that' is looking missing.
Can somebody explain : 'that' is must here or not ??
In your case, 2nd part will remain without a verb...making it a phrase. This scenario could have been correct if we had "Within the first few weeks of school, John discovered that there was limited teacher involvement and that there was an abundance of administrative hassle. Also note that, in your case "were" will not be correct.

Hope it helps.
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