chaitanya.mehrotra wrote:It was anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that led to the discovery of Neptune.

(a) It was anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that
(b) It was the orbit of Uranus showing anomalies that
(c) They were anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that
(d) The orbit of Uranus being anomalous was what
(e) The anomalies in the orbit of Uranus was what

OA A
How come WAS being singular is still correct with plural anomalies ?

anomalies is a state, means deviations/abnormal which is singular. Hence A is correct

Hope it helps.

Regards,
GK

chaitanya.mehrotra wrote:It was anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that led to the discovery of Neptune.

(a) It was anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that
(b) It was the orbit of Uranus showing anomalies that
(c) They were anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that
(d) The orbit of Uranus being anomalous was what
(e) The anomalies in the orbit of Uranus was what

OA A
How come WAS being singular is still correct with plural anomalies ?

uncountable nouns are always singular...

@chaitanya.mehrotra

anomalies is indeed PLURAL.
Anomaly is singular.

The key to solve this question is non-lined part.

1) that led to the discovery of Neptune. [led] is plural so this means that must be modifying a plural noun.
2) Normally 'that' modifies the previous immediate noun but there is an exception to this rule.
3) if I write - It was anomalies that led to discovery of neptunes in the uranus. This look stupid. we need to specify "which anomalies" thats why
it was anomalies in the uranus that led to discovery of Neptune.
4) "it" is auxilliary subject which is singular, hence "It was".
5) Overall "it (subject) was(verb) anomalies(object) ....(modifier)".

Hope it helps.