more on usage of none
https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learn ... v128.shtml

akhp77 is dead on.

When "none" is being used to mean "not one," it is a singular pronoun and takes singular verb forms. The answer to this question would be D.

That rule, in fact, does apply to this OG question:

None [Not one] of the attempts to specify the causes of crime explains why most of the people exposed to the alleged causes do not commit crimes and, conversely, why so many of those not so exposed do.

TECHNICALLY, in some cases, "none" can mean either "not one" or "not any"- which means it CAN be either singular or plural and still be correct. Does this sound confusing? That's because it is.

• None [not one] of the test-takers understands this rule.
  None [not any] of the test-takers understand this rule.

These sentences are BOTH grammatically correct (but hopefully not true).

That's why this question is extremely un-GMAT-like. The GMAT likes to treat "none" as singular and does so in most questions; however, rarely, if ever, would the only error in the sentence be the singular/plural nature of "none." If the GMAT wanted to treat "none" as plural, it would definitely contain a NON-UNDERLINED clue to make sure that you knew to treat "none [of some group]" as plural. Again, this is very unlikely, for "none" is generally treated as singular.

i m still confused what is the right answer

The correct answer is D

i only got this one right in my head because on my wall i have on my posterboard "NONE IS SINGULAR"

this issue of none is already discussed if i follow mgmat sc book then none with plural subject here friends should take plural verb have. then it sholud be A. but oa is D basing on none as singular.

any expert should comment

Can we have an expert reply on this topic? preferably with examples of all combinations of 'none of the X'
Regards,
Pd

Alex_Knewton wrote:The correct answer is D

why B is wrong ?

'as of this morning' seems to indicate the past event.
so 'was' should be the right choice instead of 'has'

paes wrote:why B is wrong ?

'as of this morning' seems to indicate the past event.
so 'was' should be the right choice instead of 'has'

you're right it is in the past, but there is a trigger to let you know what tense to use.

The sentence says "as of this morning" that triggers Past Perfect Simple...(action taking place before a certain time in the past - https://bit.ly/T0LCT)

To the other main question...when none means not one, we should use none plus a singular verb (3rd person singular). However, I agree it is an optional choice. I've noticed that the GMAT usually put's more than one error in a choice when there is something so close, such as in this example.

jeffedwards wrote:

paes wrote:why B is wrong ?

'as of this morning' seems to indicate the past event.
so 'was' should be the right choice instead of 'has'

you're right it is in the past, but there is a trigger to let you know what tense to use.

The sentence says "as of this morning" that triggers Past Perfect Simple...(action taking place before a certain time in the past - https://bit.ly/T0LCT)

To the other main question...when none means not one, we should use none plus a singular verb (3rd person singular). However, I agree it is an optional choice. I've noticed that the GMAT usually put's more than one error in a choice when there is something so close, such as in this example.

Well, I am not so much convinced with the trigger here.

Please throw light.

After all, if the statement is made this afternoon, the event was past, and what if this morning was the deadline to finish the work. So, in this case, B also seems to be an answer. However, not ruling out D, I say this is an awful question, perhaps unlikely to occur.

Thanks,
Raghu