Hi
The following statement in Manhattan SC seems very obviously wrong to me. Yet Manhattan SC states it to be correct. Can anybody pls expalin how?
A majority of railway commuters reads or listens to music while travelling. -Correct
According to me the right answer should be:
A majority of railway commuters read or listen to music while travelling.
My reasoning behind this is : Not only does it sound right but also a majority of railway commuters refers to a part of the whole, so it should be accompanied by a plural verb.
Please tell me if my line of thinking is right or wrong and why!!!
Manhattan SC: Subject Verb Agreement Q15
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- logitech
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You said it! It is A part of whole, which acts like "singular" subjectbsandhyav wrote:Hi
My reasoning behind this is : Not only does it sound right but also a majority of railway commuters refers to a part of the whole, so it should be accompanied by a plural verb.
Also note that it is A MAJORITY not MAJORITY
LGTCH
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Buy/Borrow a good grammar book and read the chapter on collective nouns. :twisted: :twisted:
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logitech wrote:You said it! It is A part of whole, which acts like "singular" subjectbsandhyav wrote:Hi
My reasoning behind this is : Not only does it sound right but also a majority of railway commuters refers to a part of the whole, so it should be accompanied by a plural verb.
Also note that it is A MAJORITY not MAJORITY
Manhattan SC says that when u are referring to the entire majority-majority is treated as singular; when you are referring to the majorities individual components(part of the whole) it is treated as plural.
Here we are talking about a majority of railway commuters so it sounds like talking about many individual railway commuters.
Yeah the logic A team plays
A majority reads sounds perfectly right to me
But when it comes to A majority of railway commuters i feel like we are talking about the individual components of majority and should be plural
Please let me knw whr i am going wrong!!!
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you are right !bsandhyav wrote: But when it comes to A majority of railway commuters i feel like we are talking about the individual components of majority and should be plural
Please let me knw whr i am going wrong!!!
for the sentence to use the singular verb 'reads' and a singular verb 'listens' the sentence should look something like this:
The railway commuters majority either reads (beaththegmat posts) or listens to music..........
Note: I did add a few things to make the sentence parallel and idiomatic.
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I am also using manhattan SC, could you tell me where did you read this statement?bsandhyav wrote:Hi
The following statement in Manhattan SC seems very obviously wrong to me. Yet Manhattan SC states it to be correct. Can anybody pls expalin how?
A majority of railway commuters reads or listens to music while travelling. -Correct
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Thanks a lot Rohan....i just re-read the statement in Manhattan SC to give u the exact location and caught the flaw in my line of thinking!!! Its the A majority and The majority that makes all the difference in singular and plural!!!rohangupta83 wrote:you are right !bsandhyav wrote: But when it comes to A majority of railway commuters i feel like we are talking about the individual components of majority and should be plural
Please let me knw whr i am going wrong!!!
for the sentence to use the singular verb 'reads' and a singular verb 'listens' the sentence should look something like this:
The railway commuters majority either reads (beaththegmat posts) or listens to music..........
Note: I did add a few things to make the sentence parallel and idiomatic.
- prepfortests
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Which edition of the Manhattan GMAT did you find this question in?
I ask because I wrote a very similar question for PrepForTests in 2006.
I ask because I wrote a very similar question for PrepForTests in 2006.
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Hi All,
There is a one more parallel thread going in for the same question:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/manhattan-bo ... tml#131166
Kindly go through the link once.
Manhattan SC guide says "reads or listens" but Manhattan Instructor says "Read or listen"
I am also totally confused in this.
Experts please help.
Thanks
Mohit
There is a one more parallel thread going in for the same question:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/manhattan-bo ... tml#131166
Kindly go through the link once.
Manhattan SC guide says "reads or listens" but Manhattan Instructor says "Read or listen"
I am also totally confused in this.
Experts please help.
Thanks
Mohit