Sentence Correction

Consumption of bread products made from ergot-infected grains often trigger severely debilitating symptoms such
as muscle contractions, seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also cause a significant reduction in maternal
bleeding after childbirth.
"¢ bread products made from ergot-infected grains often trigger severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle
contractions, seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also cause a significant reduction in
"¢ products made from ergot-infected grains often trigger severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle contractions,
seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also cause significantly reduced
"¢ bread products made from ergot-infected grains often triggers severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle
contractions, seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also causes a significant reduction in
"¢ bread made from ergot-infected grains often triggers severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle contractions,
seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also cause a significant reduction in
"¢ bread products made from ergot-infected grains often trigger severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle
contractions, seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also causes a significantly reduced

Subject is "Consumption of bread products" so the verb has to be singular.

So Correct options will have "Consumption of bread products..... triggers......, also causes"

See all the options can be discarded except C.

Thanks, but does that mean "triggers" and "causes" are singular?

shovan85 wrote:Subject is "Consumption of bread products" so the verb has to be singular.

So Correct options will have "Consumption of bread products..... triggers......, also causes"

See all the options can be discarded except C.

pratyoosh wrote:Thanks, but does that mean "triggers" and "causes" are singular?

Yes. Singular verbs usually follow "s" after the verb.

Bread (singular noun) triggers (singular verb) the disease.

Breads (plural noun) trigger (plural verb) the disease.

Got it, thanks for the explanation.

but "bread products" is plular, hence should be "trigger"

E

5abi wrote:but "bread products" is plular, hence should be "trigger"

E

Yes bread products is plural. But here subject is "Consumption of bread products".

Rule says eliminate the middle man for Subject verb agreement. So consider Consumption as Noun which is singular by eliminating of bread products.

Isn't bread products plural. In that case, shouldn't the verb be singular ? ==> "Trigger"

I chose A.

Could someone please explain whatz the OA and if my understanding is correct ?

pratyoosh wrote:Consumption of bread products made from ergot-infected grains often trigger severely debilitating symptoms such
as muscle contractions, seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also cause a significant reduction in maternal
bleeding after childbirth.
"¢ bread products made from ergot-infected grains often trigger severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle
contractions, seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also cause a significant reduction in
"¢ products made from ergot-infected grains often trigger severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle contractions,
seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also cause significantly reduced
"¢ bread products made from ergot-infected grains often triggers severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle
contractions, seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also causes a significant reduction in
"¢ bread made from ergot-infected grains often triggers severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle contractions,
seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also cause a significant reduction in
"¢ bread products made from ergot-infected grains often trigger severely debilitating symptoms such as muscle
contractions, seizures and gangrene but, at a proper dose, also causes a significantly reduced

OA C

The subject is Consumption of bread products not bread products.

The verb must refer to Consumption which is singular.So singular verbs must be used.

Test takers need to be sensitive of the context:

Bread products, when consumed, trigger...

Consumption of Bread products triggers...

The primary issue with this question is subject-verb agreement. The subject is "consumption,"
which is singular (and note that "consumption" is not underlined, so the subject will
be singular in the correct answer). Any verbs associated with this subject, therefore, also
must be singular. In the original sentence, they are both plural ("trigger" and "cause").

(A) This choice is incorrect because it repeats the original sentence.

(B) Although this sentence makes two changes from the original sentence, neither one
fixes the subject-verb agreement problem; the singular subject, "consumption," is still paired
with two plural verbs, "trigger" and "cause."

(C) CORRECT. This choice correctly pairs the singular subject, "consumption," with two
singular verbs, "triggers" and "causes."

(D) This sentence corrects the first of the two verbs ("triggers") by making it singular to match
the singular subject, "consumption," but the second verb ("cause") is still plural.

(E) This sentence corrects the second of the two verbs ("causes") by making it singular to
match the singular subject, "consumption," but the first verb ("trigger") is still plural.