the majority of students......sing or plural

[xcusemeplz2009]

Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing more women in leadership positions in politics and business.

A. Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing
B. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place
C. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, which will ultimately place
D. It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing
E. It is expected for women to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, which will ultimately place
[spoiler]
the majority of x .... i thought its sing....am i wrong, if yes then pls give a correct version[/spoiler]

[getso]

Is B the correct answer

[punitkaur]

Majority is singular or plural depending on the context. I think this explaination has been provided in the Manhattan Sc Bible.

A majority of the students ARE - reprensents a number of students

The majority party IS - represents a singular party.

The usage depends on the context as far as i understand.

BTW what was the OA? I cant find anything wrong with A

[Ludacrispat26]

IMO B

Here is a discussion:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/women-enteri ... 16154.html

[Testluv]

If it is just "majority" then it is singular.

If it is "majority of people" then because "people" is plural, we will need "are".

[tanviet]

Please, explain why D is wrong.

this is gmatprep question and we should study carefully.

[gunjan1208]

I have the same question. Why D is wrong?

[GmatKiss]

D. It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing

Skeptical with sentences starting with It is expected, It is observed, It is known, etc

B is simple and active!

IMO: B

[MartinK]

The major error which I think we have to pay attention to in this question is that by the usage of "PLACING" in the second clause, the clause is missing a verb. PLACING is not a verb; therefore, I eliminated options A & D.

In option C & E, I had problem with modifiers...I think the first clause is used to describe a noun which wasn't a clear case in these options except the option B where it was describing the TREND.

English is not my first language so correct me if I'm wrong.

[navami]

majority and minority will take singular/plural verb depending on context....

imo B here

[patanjali.purpose]

Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing[/u] more women in leadership positions in politics and business.
B. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place
D. It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing




D is wrong primarily because of the usage of 'verbing' - we know verbing takes the timeframe of the clause it modifies. Since the main clause is simple present (are expected) we can say that this modifier (ie a trend...) also talks about a simple present (ie through 'placing' modifier tried to say that the trend is happening now!). But is that what original sentence trying to communicate? No

The original sentence intents to say that the recent change that is happening now (or will happen in near future) will result in more women in leadership position in FUTURE....NOT now).

Therefore, the modifier "a trend ..." needs a different tense compared to main clause => "will place" IS BETTER CHOICE

Moreover, the future intent of modifier is also clear from word 'ultimately'. Hope it helps