Sentence Correction

In good years, the patchwork of green fields that surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them in the area just for the season.

(A) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them
(B) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of whom are
(C) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of who are
(D) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustle with farm workers, many of which
(E) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many are

[spoiler]OA: only discuss between A and C..........and tell which one is better and why?[/spoiler]

patchwork - surrounds
many of whom

B

for sure A is better
in C many of who are-definitely wrong,who is subject pronoun.and can`t be object of preposition of

Hi Clock 60,

Means everytime usage of "who" acting as a object of "preposition" would be wrong in the sentence???

I am not sure how to consider greenfields... but if greenfields is agreeing with surround then A is better than C...

But I still dont understand why the 'patchwork' of greenfields is not considered...

Hi HSPA,

Greenfields is plural and "that" is refering to greenfields therefore "surround" should be used.........i hope u got it

aspirant2011 wrote:Hi Clock 60,

Means everytime usage of "who" acting as a object of "preposition" would be wrong in the sentence???

i think so

I would go with B .

Same logic as stated by HSPA .

IMO B

"them" is ambiguous in A ("fields" or "workers")

"patchwork of green fields" subject-->singular

OA is A.....

The Patch work .. surrounds .. A,c,d out
E; seems run on
So B.

In good years, the patchwork of green fields that surround town busthe San Joaquin Valley tles with farm workers, many of them in the area just for the season.

(A) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them
(B) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of whom are
(C) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of who are
(D) surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustle with farm workers, many of which(E) surrounds the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many are

Initially, I also picked up B. But when I remembered a note regarding the usage of that I changed my answer. The word 'that' corresponds to green fields (plural) which needs a plural verb surround rather than surrounds. Thus, B and E are out.

D is out because of the usage of which.

Between A and C,

C uses who to refer to farmers, where as a objective case, whom should be used.

Thus A.

OE/Experts Opinion Please.

Honestly, I would have ended up picking up B if hint on OA was not given which made me remember the rule of 'that'.

In good years, the patchwork of green fields that surround town busthe San Joaquin Valley tles with farm workers, many of them in the area just for the season.

Subject: 'patchwork of green fields' (Here, 'of green fields' is a mission-critical noun modifier for the noun 'patchwork' and cannot be the subject. This mission critical modifier is properly placed between the subject 'patchwork' and the long modifier 'THAT surrounds ... tles')

So, SURROUND should be changed to SURROUNDS

Object: 'farm workers'

So, 'many of them' should be changed to 'many of whom' which correctly refers to the object of the sentence.

Answer: B

consider the following example:

One of the children is crying.

No problem: the subject is "one of the children", which is singular (even though children is a plural noun, the subject is determined by the "one"), so the verb is the singular "is". This is similar to the patchwork of fields...bustles - here too, the subject and verb of the main clause are singular.

Now let's add a relative clause following the plural noun, similiar to "fields, which surround"
On of the children that are playing outside is crying.

The relative clause modifies the noun directly before it - the children are playing outside. As such, it uses the plural verb "are" to agree with the plural subject "children".
The same thing happens in the sentence above: there are actually two clauses, each with its own SVA issue:

The main clause uses the singular "patchwork of fields....bustles"
The relative clause uses the plural "fields that surround", because it only modifies the noun directly preceding it.

At Master GMAT, we actually devote a specific stop sign to this dangerous construction - "one of the + [plural noun] + who/which/that", which is similiar to the above. If you see such a construction in a sentence, remember that the next verb after the relative pronoun needs to be in plural form, as the relative clause modifies the noun directly preceding it, not the subject of the main clause - much like On of the children that are playing outside is crying.

Geva@MasterGMAT wrote:consider the following example:
The relative clause modifies the noun directly before it - the children are playing outside. As such, it uses the plural verb "are" to agree with the plural subject "children".

Thanks Geva. This is exactly what I was referring.