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Subject -Verb Agreement

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Subject -Verb Agreement

by guerrero » Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:09 am
After much deliberation, The Supreme Court determined, by royal decree, that the Count, who have first been bequeathed with the property, would no longer be the legal owner of the land.

(A)who have first been bequeathed with the property
(B)to which the property has first been bequeathed
(C)being first bequeathed with the property
(D)to whom the property was first bequeathed
(E)to which the property had first been bequeathed

I am having trouble understanding the sentence . Appreciate if someone can elaborate ...

thanks !

OA D
Last edited by guerrero on Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by Nachiket » Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:26 am
guerrero wrote:After much deliberation, The Supreme Court determined, by royal decree, that the Count, who have first been bequeathed with the property, would no longer be the legal owner of the land.

(A)who have first been bequeathed with the property
(B)to which the property has first been bequeathed
(C)being first bequeathed with the property
(D)to whom the property was first bequeathed
(E)to which the property had first been bequeathed

I am having trouble understanding the sentence . Appreciate if someone can elaborate ...

thanks !
My pick E

In order to solve this problem, apart from grammar one should also know the meaning of the word "Count" here. Count is basically used in european english to designate a class or group of people. With this understanding, we can easily eliminate A and D.

Choice C : Use of being and and does not fit into the sentence.

Between B and E , the choice E clearly states the ordering of events :- Before the Supreme Court decision, the property was first bequeathed to the Count. Therefore past perfect is required in this sentence.
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by aditya8062 » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:38 am
After much deliberation, The Supreme Court determined, by royal decree, that the Count, who have first been bequeathed with the property, would no longer be the legal owner of the land.

(A)who have first been bequeathed with the property
(B)to which the property has first been bequeathed
(C)being first bequeathed with the property
(D)to whom the property was first bequeathed
(E)to which the property had first been bequeathed

I am having trouble understanding the sentence . Appreciate if someone can elaborate ...

thanks !
some one had asked the same question at gmat club today !!
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by mohit_1607 » Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:01 am
+1 for E
for the same reason as mentioned by Nachiket
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by guerrero » Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:44 am
Thank you all -

(D) is the Correct answer . In (E)& (B) Relative pronoun which can't be used to refer to people.
Also,In (A) Plural verb "have" does not agree with singular noun Count; to be bequeathed with something is an awkward construction. Something is bequeathed to someone is the right construction.
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by Nachiket » Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:58 am
guerrero wrote:Thank you all -

(D) is the Correct answer . In (E)& (B) Relative pronoun which can't be used to refer to people.
Also,In (A) Plural verb "have" does not agree with singular noun Count; to be bequeathed with something is an awkward construction. Something is bequeathed to someone is the right construction.
Good Question !! :-)

But I have a doubt here :-

A. The Cancer Society, to which I donated Rs 100, is located at the other corner of the street.

B. The Cancer Society, to whom I donated Rs 100, is located at the other corner of the street.

which one is correct ?

As per the above explanation, choice B should be the correct option which is contrary to what we speak or write.
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by guerrero » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:24 pm
Nachiket wrote:
guerrero wrote:Thank you all -

(D) is the Correct answer . In (E)& (B) Relative pronoun which can't be used to refer to people.
Also,In (A) Plural verb "have" does not agree with singular noun Count; to be bequeathed with something is an awkward construction. Something is bequeathed to someone is the right construction.
Good Question !! :-)

But I have a doubt here :-

A. The Cancer Society, to which I donated Rs 100, is located at the other corner of the street.

B. The Cancer Society, to whom I donated Rs 100, is located at the other corner of the street.

which one is correct ?

As per the above explanation, choice B should be the correct option which is contrary to what we speak or write.
I agree with you on this . Can I get some expert opinion here ??
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by aditya8062 » Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:53 pm
A. The Cancer Society, to which I donated Rs 100, is located at the other corner of the street.

B. The Cancer Society, to whom I donated Rs 100, is located at the other corner of the street.
"whom" is such a magical thing that it can go both with "living" and "nonliving" so both these sentences are not flagrantly wrong on this one issue .but yes style wise A is better though B is not wrong !!
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by himu » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:49 pm
[spoiler]D is correct.

@guerrero, I'll try to explain the meaning for you.

After much deliberation, The Supreme Court determined, by royal decree, that the Count, who was earlier bequeathed with the property, would no longer be the legal owner of the land.

PLs note : bequeathed means : Leave or give by will after one's death

So, the sentence means:After much deliberation(discussion of all sides of a question), The Supreme Court by royal decree determined that the Count who had inherited the property would no longer be the legal owner of the land.

Thus, The Count...to whom the property was bequeathed ....is correct & hence D.

@Nachiket : THE COUNT generally means the HEAD OF A HUGE EMPIRE....just to elaborate :https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245844/.....The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)....Monte cristo refers to the place.

so if we want to refer to THE COUNT it should be a single person hence we need to use WHOM...say Nachiket with WHOM we all studied scored 750 on the GMAT !

Also for E : it contains **had** but there is no past tense already used, thus this option is wrong.

Experts, please correct me if I am wrong.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
~Himu.[/spoiler]
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by Nachiket » Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:15 pm
himu wrote:[spoiler]D is correct.

@guerrero, I'll try to explain the meaning for you.

After much deliberation, The Supreme Court determined, by royal decree, that the Count, who was earlier bequeathed with the property, would no longer be the legal owner of the land.

PLs note : bequeathed means : Leave or give by will after one's death

So, the sentence means:After much deliberation(discussion of all sides of a question), The Supreme Court by royal decree determined that the Count who had inherited the property would no longer be the legal owner of the land.

Thus, The Count...to whom the property was bequeathed ....is correct & hence D.

@Nachiket : THE COUNT generally means the HEAD OF A HUGE EMPIRE....just to elaborate :https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245844/.....The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)....Monte cristo refers to the place.

so if we want to refer to THE COUNT it should be a single person hence we need to use WHOM...say Nachiket with WHOM we all studied scored 750 on the GMAT !

Also for E : it contains **had** but there is no past tense already used, thus this option is wrong.

Experts, please correct me if I am wrong.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
~Himu.[/spoiler]
As far as past tense is concerned, there is a sequence of events depicted in the sentence, that
before the supreme court determined ( this is in the past) the land was bequeathed to the Count, so past perfect is not absolutely wrong in this context. But yeah if Count refers to the head of a class/group then use of " whom" makes sense !! :-)
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by aditya8062 » Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:51 pm
so past perfect is not absolutely wrong in this context.
this is not correct !!

the wording " first bequeathed " makes the sequence logical so past perfect is wrong
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