issues with problems starting with among

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issues with problems starting with among

by rtaha2412 » Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:01 pm
I need help finding the subject of the sentence when its hidden in an among construction


Among the reasons for the decline of New England agriculture in the last three decades were the high cost of land, the pressure of housing and commercial development, and basing a marketing and distribution system on importing produce from Florida and California.
(A) basing a marketing and distribution system on importing produce from Florida and California
(B) basing a marketing and distribution system on the imported produce of Florida and California
(C) basing a system of marketing and distribution on the import of produce from Florida and California
(D) a marketing and distribution system based on importing produce from Florida and California
(E) a marketing and distribution system importing produce from Florida and California as its base




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
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by sanabk » Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:30 pm
For both questions
IMO C

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by Isaac@EconomistGMAT » Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:15 pm
Actually in Question 1, this has nothing to do with 'among' and the subject being hidden, and has everything to do with parallelism.

Firstly, in this question in which 'among' begins the phrase, the subject comes after the verb 'were'. The plural verb 'were' agrees with the items that come after the verb 'were'.

Example: Among the villagers lives a man who is secretly a poet. (Lives agrees with the man, not the villagers)

As for the Parallelism, the three reasons are the high cost..., the pressure, and basing....

Notice that the first two items are nouns and the third is an unconjugated verb (present participial). All three items on the list have to be of the same type. This eliminates the first three answer choices and E changes the meaning around.
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by Isaac@EconomistGMAT » Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:25 pm
Oops!
And question 2!

This is the same idea as the first question (verb precedes the subject with 'among' as a major hint), but in this case the answer choice does test this particular aspect AND tests parallelism.

There is only one emotion on display: Anger. Therefore the verb to be should be in the singular, as 'anger' is singular and it is this one specific emotion that is being dealt with. Therefore, eliminate answer choices with 'were'.

Next, the parallelism. There are two matters that people were angry about in the negotiating room: Repeatedly raising the issue AND preventing the raw wounds from being healed. Both those issues need to be in parallel form (notice the 'and' denoting here the list of two items). In D the two items are not parallel (one is a noun, the other an unconjugated 'ing' verb). In B there is a parallel anger for a) raising the issue, and b) preventing...
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