Collective Noun SC Help needed!!

[vp2009]

Hi,

Here's one SC prob from Kaplan:

A group of students who have begun to clean up Fredrick Law Park in New York City believes that the park needs not to be redesigned but to be returned to its former condition.

A. believes that the park needs not to be redesigned but to
B. believe that the park needs to not be redesigned but to
C. believes that the park needs not to be redesigned but could
D. believe that the park needs to be not redesigned but to
E. believe that the park needs not to be redesigned but that it

Could anyone pls help me with this SC prob with explanantion???
I'm not convinced with the answer and explanantion given in the book...

[hypermeganet]

A.

Group of students is singular so you know believes is correct. That eliminates all but A and C, right?

C is incorrect as we are dealing with what the students believes needs to happen (certainty) not what could happen (uncertainty).

Does that help?

[vp2009]

Yup. you are correct. The answer is A.

I think I got confused between "A group" and "The Group"
"A Group" is Singular and hence used plural verbs "have" and "believes".
Also, the original sentence has parrallelism intact.
not to be... but to be....

Got it now..
Thnks..

[rsadana1]

"A group of students who have begun to clean up Fredrick Law Park in New York City believes that the park needs not to be redesigned but to be returned to its former condition."


A group {of students} = singular, since group is a collective noun

Students = plural

Simplify the sentence as:

1: A group of students believes that the park...
Singular group, so singular verb believes

2: who have begun to clean up Fredrick Law Park
who refers to plural noun - students and hence plural verb have begun.

Also, even if you had The group - it would still be singular by virtue of group being a collective noun. You may be getting confused with the usage of 'a' and 'the' with number of...

a number of students were cleaning the park = plural
the number of students who are cleaning the park increases every month = singular

[vp2009]

Thanks rsadana..

that was really a helpful and detailed explanation..