John was one of the few people to get his hands on an advance ticket

It seems there was a lot of confusion regarding the singular-plural error.

Here is an explanation:

There is only one rule: Identify the subject for the verb in question.

e.g.
- Only one of the managers is working on that project.
'is' here refers to the one who is working on that project.

- He is one of the managers who are working on that project.
There are some managers who are working on that project. He is one of them.

- One of the managers who are working on that project is my boss.
Notice that 'one' corresponds to 'is' and 'managers' corresponds to 'are working'

I hope we all agree with these examples.

Now think - is the given sentence similar to one of these 3 examples? Yes, it is similar to the second example.
John is one of the few people to get their hands on ... (the people got their hands on something)
He is one of the managers who are working on that project. (the managers are working on that project)
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Hi stunn3r

You can see this type of question over and over again in GMAT test.

Always be aware of the "OF phrase" that can change singular to plural noun.
For example: Nevada is one of the few states which have desert weather in the U.S
==> few states is plural ==> "have" is correct.

Same as in this question: John was one OF the few people <== "few people" is plural. John is only one person of the group "few people" ==> "his hands" is wrong. Thus, A is not correct.

Hope it helps.

!	The Winning Reply Congratulations!

C is correct
few people is the subject which needs a plural verb
Also the cancellation is ONLY because of the back injury not because of Bono himself
Also due to in B is incorrectly used
due to can always be replaced by caused by and it doesnt work here.
Due to is a noun modifier
so we need "because of" here
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The first thing to decide is whether the object is the plural few people or the singular one. IMO, for the object to be ‘one’, there should be a definite article such as 'the' before one. In the absence of that, the sentence means that there were few others who wanted the tickets. Hence the pronoun should be their rather than his. Instantly, A, D and E are gone. Between B and C, C is more idiomatic with the use of because of, which brings out the causal relationship clearly. C is the best
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Could you please explain the SV agreement concept with a few examples.
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I am not sure if people will appreciate this but let me try anyway

Consider the following examples
1.In the popular sitcom 30 Rock, the one episode which was aired live WAS well appreciated.
This is a correct sentence as the subject is singular (one episode)
2. Boxing is a difficult sport; only one out of ten amateurs becomes pro.
Here 9 out of 10 boxers DO NOT become pro. We are talking about the ONLY one who does. So the verb needed is singular.
3. The popular sitcom 30 Rock was one of the few shows which were appreciated by the 40-50 year old demographic
Notice that "was" is used for singular verb 30 Rock but plural verb "were" is used for "few shows". The above sentence could also be re written as:
4. One of the few shows that were appreciated by the 40-50 year old demographic, 30 Rock was extremely popular.
Here few shows were appreciated, not just 30 Rock alone. Hence plural verb is needed.
Hope this helps.
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Winner: souvik101990

Congratulations!!!!

OA: C

Explanation:

Note first the decision between “his hands” and “their hands”. This is a pronoun decision, but one that requires some logical reasoning. Did these people all get John’s hands on tickets? Logically, that makes no sense - so they must have gotten their own hands on the tickets, leading to choice B or choice C. Then the difference comes down to “front man Bono AND his back injury” or “front man Bono’s back injury”. Notice the flaw in B - Bono and his back injury are not two separate reasons for the tour’s delay. It’s one event - Bono’s back injury. Again, logic prevails and the correct answer is C.
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John was one of what? - "the few people to get THEIR (referring to the few people and hence plural)hands on an advance ticket for U2's North American tour"

So only B & C remain in contention. The reason for the delay was Bono's back injury. So Bono & his back injury is unneccessarily confusing.

I'll go with C

"One of the few", hence we should use singular pronoun .. B,C gone ..

D,E - Bono's back injury is much more concise and meaningful than Bono and his back injury. also E trimmed an important piece of information that the tour was delayed for months

IMO ... A

A. to get his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months on account of front man Bono’s back injury.
This choice incorrectly uses “due to” to present the reasoning why the tour was delayed. Instead “because of” should be used.

B. to get their hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months due to front man Bono and his back injury.
This choice has same error as in A.

C. to get their hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months because of front man Bono’s back injury.
This choice is the correct one. Now “because of” has been used instead of “due to”.

D. who got his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months on account of front man Bono and his back injury.
This answer choice has several errors. “Who” now modifies “people” and is followed by pronoun “his” that refers to John. To correct this one, we need to substitute his with their. Even though “due to” has been changed to “on account of, the sentence now implies that there were 2 reasons that caused the delay: front man bono (1) and his back injury (2). This is not the intended meaning of the sentence.

E. who got his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed because of front man Bono and his back injury
This answer choice has the same pronoun error as answer choice D.

I don't understand the point you're making. Are you saying that it is incorrect to use "due to" to express a reason for something happening? If anything, I would think "due to" is more correct that "because of", which strikes me as far more informal than "due to". Why is "due to" wrong?

Also, my focus was only on the structure of "John is one of the few people" and whether it is correct to write "his hands" or "their hands". I'm not so interested in the total question in this case--just the singularity or plurality of the subject.

Hi engineernj
https://e-gmat.com/blog/gmat-verbal/sen ... because-of
here is an interesting article about due to vs because of.

few people - plural
John - singular

In our examples (D/E) we use relative pronoun "who", which, just like "which", modifies the closest noun. Consequently "his" should refer to the pronoun "who", which modifies plural people. But singular "his" does not make sense with plural "few people".

John was one of the few people to get his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months due to front man Bono’s back injury.

My analysis of the question.

Clause 1: John was one of the few people to get his hands on an advance ticket for U2's North American tour
Subject is John and not few people because few people are part of the prepositional phrase (of the......)
Verb is was
This is correct as one clause and one subject verb pair.

Clause 2: a tour that was delayed by several months due to front man Bono’s back injury.
The subject is tour and that correctly refers to tour here and further explains about it.
The verb is was.

The sentence is correct and thus answer should be A.

Can anyone please explain why C makes sense and how few people is the subject despite being part of the prepositional phrase?

Thanks

Option C (Correct):
"Few people" is not the subject, but the object of the sentence. The construction is as follows:
Main verb: "was"
Subject: "John"
Object: "few people"

The modifier "to get their hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour" refers to "few people".

Finally, there is an absolute phrase ("a tour that was delayed by several months because of front man Bono’s back injury"), which modifies the entire main clause. (This part is NOT a clause - there is no verb for the noun "a tour" - the verb "was delayed" is within the relative pronoun modifier "that was delayed .... injury"). The structure of the absolute phrase is: Noun ("a tour") + Noun modifier ("that was delayed....injury")

Option A (Wrong):
Option A is wrong because "his" wrongly refers to "few people".

Hi Expert.. How can many people get their hands on "An Advance Ticket" SINGULAR????

deependra1234, the sentence is just saying that only a few people were able to get a ticket at all. Each person who gets a ticket is then getting a singular thing. Similarly, we would say "Obama is one of the few American politicians to win a Nobel Peace Prize." While there may have been multiple prizes, each person won just one. Logically, it might seem that the whole phrase after "one" is a big modifier, and that the final portion ("to win a Nobel Prize") should therefore refer to the preceding noun ("few politicians"), but that's not how this expression works.
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HI daagh experts can you please help me with the above question.

the general rule for one of is
1. One of the Xs that/who <plural>
2. One of the Xs <singular>
3. only One of the Xs <singular>
4. only One of the Xs that/who <plural>
5. "the" only One of the Xs that/who <singular>

John was one of the few people to get his hands on an advance
in the question, since with one of , who/that is not used we must use singular has and not their. Please correct me if i am wrong.

Why is the singular 'his' better?

John was one of the few people to get his hands on an advance ticket
This is making clear that there was one advanced ticket but several suitors. Hence, if many people got their hands on that one ticket, the ticket would have been rather torn than won by any individual. Therefore, it is reasonable to think that John got his hands and won it, and maybe a few others were also as lucky after John. However, it is John's hands that we are concerned with and therefore the singular is more plausible and sensible than the plural.
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hi daagh agree with your point but the OA is something else for this question. OA is C. Can you please explain.

John was one of the few people to get his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months due to front man Bono’s back injury.
A. to get his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months on account of front man Bono’s back injury.
B. to get their hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months due to front man Bono and his back injury.
C. to get their hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months because of front man Bono’s back injury.
D. who got his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed by several months on account of front man Bono and his back injury.
E. who got his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour – a tour that was delayed because of front man Bono and his back injury