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by voodoo_child » Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:07 pm
According to the international investment memorandum recently signed in Geneva, France is one of the 4 European nations planning to provide fewer tax incentives for foreign investment in production of heavy industrial machinery.

a) planning to provide fewer
b) planning to provide less
c) planning on providing fewer
d) which is planning on providing fewer
e) that is planning to provide less


OA is a). For E) if you neglect "less", the explanation says that "is planning" is not in agreement with the plural noun "nations." I am not sure why???

Any thoughts

Thanks
Voodoo
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by aspirant2011 » Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:29 pm
in E "is" is being used because subject is "one" as the sentence says "France is one of the four nations"..........
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by atulmangal » Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:57 pm
@voodoo_child

Rule 1:-- One of the Books (plural noun) THAT/ WHO ARE (plural verb)

That / WHO refer back to the plural noun books...so take plural verb

Rule 2:-- One of the Books IS (NO THAT/WHO hence singular verb)

Exception:-- when THE ONLY ONE is used

Ex:-- He is the only one of the cricketers THAT/WHO IS (not are because u use the only one)

Hope this clear your doubt
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by smackmartine » Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:57 pm
Usage of "one of the"

Case 1 when used with "ONLY"
eg. The ONLY one of several projects THAT IS (SINGULAR).....

case 2 : when used without "ONLY"
eg. one of several projects THAT ARE (PLURAL)....
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by voodoo_child » Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:00 pm
atulmangal wrote:@voodoo_child

Rule 1:-- One of the Books (plural noun) THAT/ WHO ARE (plural verb)

That / WHO refer back to the plural noun books...so take plural verb

Rule 2:-- One of the Books IS (NO THAT/WHO hence singular verb)

Exception:-- when THE ONLY ONE is used

Ex:-- He is the only one of the cricketers THAT/WHO IS (not are because u use the only one)

Hope this clear your doubt
how do you know whether "that is planning" is modifying nations and not France(subject of the main clause) ?
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by atulmangal » Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:16 pm
voodoo_child wrote:
atulmangal wrote:@voodoo_child

Rule 1:-- One of the Books (plural noun) THAT/ WHO ARE (plural verb)

That / WHO refer back to the plural noun books...so take plural verb

Rule 2:-- One of the Books IS (NO THAT/WHO hence singular verb)

Exception:-- when THE ONLY ONE is used

Ex:-- He is the only one of the cricketers THAT/WHO IS (not are because u use the only one)

Hope this clear your doubt
how do you know whether "that is planning" is modifying nations and not France(subject of the main clause) ?
one of the 4 European nations THAT is planning to provide less

Rule 1:-- One of the Books (plural noun) THAT/ WHO ARE (plural verb)

That / WHO refer back to the plural noun books...so take plural verb

Did u see the common syntax b/w choice E and rule 1 and how Op E is violating the rule 1 by using singular verb instead of plural...the pronoun THAT refer back to its preceding noun NATIONS, which is plural and so takes a plural verb
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by voodoo_child » Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:21 pm
I did see that. Spot the difference:

Merchant of Venice is one of the best books that is written by W Shakespeare.

Merchant of Venice is one of the best books that were written by W Shakespeare.

I somehow feel that option # 1 is correct. that in #1 is a clause (noun clause), that in #2 is a restrictive modifier.

I am still not clear.
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by voodoo_child » Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:15 am
Can anyone please answer ?

Or may be let's change the option E to say "that is planning to provide fewer" What would have been wrong with this ?

Thanks
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by atulmangal » Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:21 am
voodoo_child wrote:I did see that. Spot the difference:

Merchant of Venice is one of the best books that is written by W Shakespeare.

Merchant of Venice is one of the best books that were written by W Shakespeare.

I somehow feel that option # 1 is correct. that in #1 is a clause (noun clause), that in #2 is a restrictive modifier.

I am still not clear.
I still believe that the second example is correct not the first one...applied the same rule i stated in my earlier post...

Rest, may be some expert can assure you or can correct or update my concept if m wrong.
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by bnair » Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:12 am
@voodoo_child
the verb form for the first sentence just does not stand up.

Merchant of Venice is one of the best books that is written by W Shakespeare. This is the passive form of simple present; outrightly wrong.

The comparison should have been between 'was written' & 'were written'.

As far as I've seen the rules from gmat land quoted in this forum, it has to be 'were' written.

one of the + plural + that/which + plural
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by voodoo_child » Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:56 am
bnair wrote:@voodoo_child
the verb form for the first sentence just does not stand up.

Merchant of Venice is one of the best books that is written by W Shakespeare. This is the passive form of simple present; outrightly wrong.

The comparison should have been between 'was written' & 'were written'.

As far as I've seen the rules from gmat land quoted in this forum, it has to be 'were' written.

one of the + plural + that/which + plural
@bnair- yes, you are correct about the tense.

"one of the + plural + that/which + plural" is this a grammatical rule or a derived assumption ? I am still not clear.....
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by atulmangal » Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:00 am
voodoo_child wrote:
bnair wrote:@voodoo_child
the verb form for the first sentence just does not stand up.

Merchant of Venice is one of the best books that is written by W Shakespeare. This is the passive form of simple present; outrightly wrong.

The comparison should have been between 'was written' & 'were written'.

As far as I've seen the rules from gmat land quoted in this forum, it has to be 'were' written.

one of the + plural + that/which + plural
@bnair- yes, you are correct about the tense.

"one of the + plural + that/which + plural" is this a grammatical rule or a derived assumption ? I am still not clear.....
This is a Rule stated in Sentence Correction Holy Grail Guide
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by Geva@EconomistGMAT » Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:06 am
As a general rule, relative clauses modify the noun directly preceding the relative clause. A relative clause following a one of Y phrase (such as one of the best books) will therefore modify the noun immediately preceding it: the plural Y, not the singular "one of the Y".

Example:
One of the children is crying (singular subject of main clause is "one of the children", so singular main verb is "is".)
But
One of the children, who are playing outside, is crying.
The subject and verb of the main clause are still singular, but the relative clause uses the plural "children" as its own subject, and matches the plural verb 'are'.
"As an even more general rule, modifying clauses should be as close as possible to the "thing' they are modifying - For example, in the sentence "the black dog is menacing the orange cat", there is no reason to assume that "black" somehow modifies "cat" and not "dog". In the absence of any other clue, Proximity is the way we learn what is being modified. Many GMAT questions will play on this general rule by distancing the modifying clause from the correct thing it needs to modify.
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by voodoo_child » Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:16 am
voodoo_child wrote:
bnair wrote:@voodoo_child
the verb form for the first sentence just does not stand up.

Merchant of Venice is one of the best books that is written by W Shakespeare. This is the passive form of simple present; outrightly wrong.

The comparison should have been between 'was written' & 'were written'.

As far as I've seen the rules from gmat land quoted in this forum, it has to be 'were' written.

one of the + plural + that/which + plural
@bnair- yes, you are correct about the tense.

"one of the + plural + that/which + plural" is this a grammatical rule or a derived assumption ? I am still not clear.....

HEre's an example

"https://www.univ.rzeszow.pl/wfil/ifa/usar5/sar_v5_01.pdf"

One of the distinctions that is made is between a grammar restricted to one language and a comparative grammar which can further be divided..

This sentence is on page 12, 4th paragraph ?

Any thoughts?
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by bnair » Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:09 am
@ Geva - thanks; you clarified it well.

however, the rule changes a bit when we have 'the' preceeding the clause.

the one of the children, who is playing outside

can you please explain that too?
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