Plural or Singular SC Question

[squishychinchi]

Hello all,

I cannot understand this sentence (came across a similar one in Kaplan book):


Unlike other boys on the team, who are given bats to play, Timmie has not received a bat.

Now, is it wrong to say "a bat" instead of "bats"? Which one is correct? The answer in Kaplan is saying it's better if it's "a bat" but didn't say why. I was wondering if the meaning of the sentence would be difference if it's "bats" instead of "a bat"?

Thanks.

[HJ]

I think "a bat" would have a different meaning because one person can only use one bat to play the game, not many bats to play.

[Danielle]

It's a bat because there is a silent "with" at the end of the phrase. They were given 'a bat to play with'. Also this is a case of parallelism, because it has to match what Timmie was given, which was 'a bat' not 'bat'. So, the other boys were given 'a bat' and Timmie was given 'a bat'. They have to be the same because of the contrasting word 'unlike' in the sentence.

[squishychinchi]

Ah I think I got it, thank you so much for your replies!