Sentence Correction

While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 900–400 b.c., waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attest to the fact that the Mesoamerican ballgame was well established by the mid-thirteenth century b.c.


(A) waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attest

(B) waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attests

(C) waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and ceramics painted with representations of ballplayers found at San Lorenzo attests

(D) the finding of waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attests

(E) the finding of waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and of representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics at San Lorenzo attest


OA A

Source: Official Guide

The sentence correction issue in this sentence is the subject-verb agreement. Singular subjects are to have singular subjects while plural subject take plural forms of verb in order to explain that the existence of the two artifacts is proof that the game exist.

Option A- CORRECT
This option is correct because the two subjects 'water-logged latex bill' and 'representation of ballplayers' take the plural verb 'attest'

Option B- INCORRECT
This sentence makes it seems as if only 'the painting of representation of ballplayers' is the subject which is why it takes a singular verb.

Option C- INCORRECT
It uses a singular verb 'attest' with plural subjects.

Option D- INCORRECT
There is no subject-verb agreement and it changes the intended meaning of the sentence, It says that the act of finding the two artifacts is proof that the mesoamerican ball game existed .

Option E- INCORRECT
This option changes the meaning of the sentence, by saying the finding of the two artifacts is a proof that the game exist instead of saying that the existence of the two artifacts is the proof needed to know that the game existed.