One of the Substances

[rohangupta83]

１４． Biologists believe that they have found one of the substances that tell individual genes both when to become active and when to remain quiescent in the earliest phases of an embryo's development.

(A) tell individual genes both when to become active and when to remain
(B) tell individual genes both at which time they should become active and should remain
(C) tells individual genes both when to become active and when to remain
(D) tells individual genes both when to activate and when to
(E) tell an individual gene both about when it should become active and when it should remain

My question is, how do I determine whether ''one of the substances'' is singular or plural?

[mals24]

In all "one of the X that ...." constructions, verb should agree with X.

e.g. one of the factors that are......

In all "one of the X..." (without a relative pronoun that, who etc), verb should be singular.

e.g. one of my friends is.....

[rohangupta83]

In all "one of the X that ...." constructions, verb should agree with X.

e.g. one of the factors that are......

In all "one of the X..." (without a relative pronoun that, who etc), verb should be singular.

e.g. one of my friends is.....

ahh, got it now!

Thanks mals24

[iamcste]

１４． Biologists believe that they have found one of the substances that tell individual genes both when to become active and when to remain quiescent in the earliest phases of an embryo's development.

(A) tell individual genes both when to become active and when to remain
(B) tell individual genes both at which time they should become active and should remain
(C) tells individual genes both when to become active and when to remain
(D) tells individual genes both when to activate and when to
(E) tell an individual gene both about when it should become active and when it should remain

My question is, how do I determine whether ''one of the substances'' is singular or plural?

Look at the object of the preposition "Of"...

[rohangupta83]

Look at the object of the preposition "Of"...

What would these be - singular or plural?

One of the fish -

One of the fish that -

[jimmiejaz]

In both of these, it will be singular since fish is singular.

If it were
One of the fishes is - Its always singular
One of the fishes that are - Chk the object (fishes-plural)

[iamcste]

In all "one of the X that ...." constructions, verb should agree with X.

e.g. one of the factors that are......

In all "one of the X..." (without a relative pronoun that, who etc), verb should be singular.

e.g. one of my friends is.....

I am aware that in such cases, Object of the preposition decides verb.

However, how does the inclusion of relative pronoun affects Subject verb agreement. Could you pls point me to the source...

[jimmiejaz]

iamcste i have a link which points to what you are looking for.

https://aliscot.com/bigdog/agreement_sv.htm

Please scroll to the bottom and it says the rule.
Hope it is helpful.

[mals24]

In sentences with the construction 'one of the x relative pronoun', the subject of the verb is a relative pronoun. Hence care should be taken to see that the verb agrees with the antecedent of the relative pronoun.

I'll give you some examples:

This is one of the most interesting novels that "have" appeared this year.
The antecedent of that is novels, not one.
Explanation: There have been many interesting novels that have appeared this year. So 'that' refers to novels. This one is just one of them.

Only one vs the only one

This is only one of the novels that 'have' appeared this year.
This sentence can be rephrased as following: In addition to this novel, there have been other novels that have appeared this year. Since we are talking about more than one novels that appeared this year, we use the plural have.

This is the only one of his poems that "is" worth reading.
The antecedent of that is one, not poems.
Its quite simple. There is only one novel that is reading. All novels are not worth reading. Hence 'that' modifies one. Since the sentence specifically says "the only one".

The use of 'the' in the previous example is an important factor for using a singular verb.

So basically in these cases you have to see whether the antecedent of the relative pronoun is singular or plural. Its ok to follow the rule I stated in the previous post, but just be careful when you see 'only one'.

Source: High School English Grammar, Wren & Martin (Pg 218, point number 136).

[iamcste]

iamcste i have a link which points to what you are looking for.

https://aliscot.com/bigdog/agreement_sv.htm

Please scroll to the bottom and it says the rule.
Hope it is helpful.

Danke! Thanks! Merci! Dhanywad!

[acecoolan]

Whats the OA . We never got to that I guess.

Is it A based on the logic by Mals?

[Abdulla]

I think C is right.. correct me if I'm wrong

[jimmiejaz]

The ans should be A according to the discussion above.
one of the 'substances' that tell.....
substances is plural.

[sillyfool]

Well according to the discussion above A seems to be the right answer
rest all choices are wordy and induce which un-necessarily
the choices with tells are automatically eliminated
So A seems to be the best

[mals24]

Yup OA is A.