Hello,

Kindly attempt the following question and please give me the correct answer to this one:

Question:

Those driving through the Australian outback must be careful to pack plenty of supplies, as there are certain stretches where the amount of fuel or amenities are minimal at best.


Answer choices :

A. amount of fuel or amenities are
B. amount of fuel or amenities is
C. number of amenities and amount of fuel is
D.amount of fuel or amenities available is
E.number of amenities and amount of fuel available are



I marked C as per the explanation given below but it seems to be incorrect and the correct answer is actually E. Please explain



Explanation given:

This question is based upon the correct usage of words such as 'number' and 'amount.' The former is used with words that are countable (such as 'pens' or 'cookies'); the latter is used with words that are "non-countable" or that exist in lump sums (such as 'ink' or 'milk'). There are two other pairs of words that follow the same usage rules as 'number' and 'amount,' respectively: 'fewer' and 'less'; and 'many' and 'much.' In the pair of items in this sentence, fuel and amenities, the former is non-countable (and thus must have 'amount' used with it) and the latter is countable (and thus must have 'number' used with it). An additional error in these choices involves subject-verb agreement in regard to compound subjects that are joined with the conjunction 'or.' The relevant rule is that the verb will agree with the closest subject to the verb. For example, Either the dogs or the cat is sick. Either the dog or the cats are sick.