Sentence Correction

Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal.

(A) were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal
(B) was anger for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal
(C) were anger over repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin healing
(D) was anger about the issue, which was raised over and over, and preventing the wounds from earlier battles, still raw, to begin healing
(E) were anger about the issue, which was raised repeatedly, and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin to heal

OA B. I did not like the use from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal...but B is still the correct ans.

Here is my explanation for 'B':

(A) were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal (Wrong as anger is singular)
(B) was anger for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal (Correctly uses 'was' for singular and maintains parallelism between 'raising and 'preventing')
(C) were anger over repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin healing (Wrong as anger is singular)
(D) was anger about the issue, which was raised over and over, and preventing the wounds from earlier battles, still raw, to begin healing (It sounds as if the battles were still raw and not the wounds)
(E) were anger about the issue, which was raised repeatedly, and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin to heal (Wrong as anger is singular)

My only confusion is that the writer introduces two reasons "anger for repeatedly raing the issue" and "preventing the raw wounds for healing" hence shouldnt the plural "were" be used

hmboy17 wrote:Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal.

(A) were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal
(B) was anger for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal
(C) were anger over repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin healing
(D) was anger about the issue, which was raised over and over, and preventing the wounds from earlier battles, still raw, to begin healing
(E) were anger about the issue, which was raised repeatedly, and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin to heal

OA B. I did not like the use from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal...but B is still the correct ans.

Among the emotions on display indicates that the subject being talked is singular hence was is correct.
Ruling out options A,C,E
D is awkward,unnecessary fragmented. B is more clear.
Hence B

beat_gmat_09 wrote:

hmboy17 wrote:Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal.

(A) were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal
(B) was anger for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal
(C) were anger over repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin healing
(D) was anger about the issue, which was raised over and over, and preventing the wounds from earlier battles, still raw, to begin healing
(E) were anger about the issue, which was raised repeatedly, and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin to heal

OA B. I did not like the use from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal...but B is still the correct ans.

Among the emotions on display indicates that the subject being talked is singular hence was is correct.
Ruling out options A,C,E
D is awkward,unnecessary fragmented. B is more clear.
Hence B

I don't agree that the phrase Among the emotions on display inherently indicates that the subject is singular.
If another emotion had been referenced (in addition to 'anger'), then choices (B) and (D) would be eliminated, because the sentence would be referring to more than one emotion, such that "were" would be correct, and "was" would be incorrect.

DISPUTED......

jus in loop to get comments 4m experts...

I would say it is singular....

only becuase of the sentence that follows 'Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room ' ...... 'anger'



For eg:


Among all the students was one kid Rick who never studied

While this could also be ...

Among all the students were two boys who never studied



I am not a grammar guru.... jst tryin to put in my two cents.

gmatguy81 wrote:I would say it is singular....

only becuase of the sentence that follows 'Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room ' ...... 'anger'



For eg:


Among all the students was one kid Rick who never studied

While this could also be ...

Among all the students were two boys who never studied



I am not a grammar guru.... jst tryin to put in my two cents.

I agree that it's singular in this particular instance, because only one emotion ("anger") is referenced.
If more emotions were referenced, the phrase would no longer be singular.
My point was that the phrase Among the emotions on display is not inherently singular.

1. problem -- singular/plural

Anger was/were among the emotions.

Definitely was because anger is singular.

2. The parallelism, we are talking about a single element among the emotions, so the things that should be parallel are
raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from healing.

Only B is representative of both these corrections, so my option B

OK , so the sentence is dispute is "Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room were anger" and the use of WAS/ WERE .


Now lets reverse the sentence a bit : "Anger WAS/ WERE among the emotions on display in negotiating room."

Now we can easily guess what is correct WAS / WERE .