Sentence Correction

In Scotland, the number of wild salmon have been reduced because of uncontrolled deepsea and coastal netting, by pollution, and by various other threats to the fish’s habitat.
A. number of wild salmon have been reduced because of uncontrolled deep-sea and
coastal netting
B. number of wild salmon is reduced because deep-sea and coastal netting is not
controlled
C. numbers of wild salmon has been reduced because of uncontrolled deep-sea and
coastal netting
D. wild salmon’s numbers are reduced by deep-sea and coastal netting that is not
controlled
E. wild salmon’s numbers have been reduced by uncontrolled deep-sea and coastal
netting

A: number of wild salmon needs singular verb-has (X)
B: looks ok
C: has been reduced(Present Perfect) and usage of numbers seems to be not correct (X)
D: are reduced by - Passive Voice (X)
E: have been reduced by- Present perfect in Passive Voice (X)

I think it should be "E"
Whats OA
"B" looks fine on 1st glance, but if you look at sentence closely, underlined part of phrase is not parallel with the rest

IMO E

Parallelism problem. Go with (E).

Thanks Madhukumar.. for "have been reduced by- Present perfect in Passive Voice (X)"

i thought so too...but OA is E.

seems like don't work your mind..just look for by..by..by and choose between that..

yup E..parallelism

by uncontrolled deep-sea and coastal netting // by pollution // by various other threats to the fish’s habitat

What about the whole "A number" and "The number" concept?

This clearly states "The number", so the verb would have to be singular.
("The number of cars is red.")

"A number" uses a plural verb ("A number of cars are parked.").

"have been" is a plural verb.

Please tell me what I'm not getting... that is the first thing I looked at when deciding which answer was correct.

I DO understand the fact that B is correct _BECAUSE_ of the parallelism, but I DON'T understand why it uses a plural verb.

I find E conflicting because "wild salmon’s numbers".

Isn't "number of wild samon" better?

I picked E although it did not sound very right to me. Because - GMAT wants you to pick the least wrong answer sometimes. The question has been smartly phrased to not underline "the", so some folks may miss "the". But it is "the" that was most helpful. All choices from 1A- D have at least one noticeable error
(A): the number of wild salmon have (should be has)
(B)number of wild salmon is reduced..."is" cannot come with past tense "reduced" - can say was reduced or is reducing.
(C)the numbers... has (should be have here - numbers - plural)
(D)wild salmons numbers are reduced..."are" cannot come with past tense "reduced" - can say were reduced or are reducing.


Left with (E) which seemed least error filled, although do not like sound of "the wild salmon's numbers", but (E) did not have any noticeable errors.

some fundamental rules

A number of ==> Plural

The Number of ==> Singular

Since in the original question it is given: the Number of....so we must act accordingly

A. number of wild salmon have been reduced because of uncontrolled deepsea and coastal netting

Singular and not(have)plural

C. numbers of wild salmon has been reduced because of uncontrolled deep-sea and
coastal netting

There is nothing called numbers of



D and E out of question as they change the subject.

Hope this helps

Karan

gmat740 wrote: D and E out of question as they change the subject.

OA is D!

What what you said actually helped.

What I got from it:

"A number OF" is plural.
"THE number OF" is singular.

"THE NUMBERS ARE" is PLURAL.
"THE NUMBER IS" is SINGULAR.

Yes, D and E change the meaning, but that is OK if all the other answer choices are grammatically incorrect. A, B, and C do not follow parallelism.

The Number vs. A Number

As a stand-alone word and as a collective noun, "number" can take a singular or
a plural form.
e.g.Two hundreds persons were at the party; the number(s) is (are) just
astounding.
However, when preceded by an article and followed by preposition "of",
"number" is singular and the verb that follows "number" will be conjugated
singular or plural depending on whether there is a definite or indefinite article in
front. The expression ’the number of . . .’ is singular, while ’a number of . . .’ is plural.
The following sentences are both correct:
The number of bad movies showing this summer is unbelievable.
A number of my friends are going to the beach this weekend

The Number vs. A Number

As a stand-alone word and as a collective noun, "number" can take a singular or
a plural form.
e.g.Two hundreds persons were at the party; the number(s) is (are) just
astounding.
However, when preceded by an article and followed by preposition "of",
"number" is singular and the verb that follows "number" will be conjugated
singular or plural depending on whether there is a definite or indefinite article in
front. The expression ’the number of . . .’ is singular, while ’a number of . . .’ is plural.
The following sentences are both correct:
The number of bad movies showing this summer is unbelievable.
A number of my friends are going to the beach this weekend

experts please lemme know why D is wrong?
thanks