Re: People can debate the aesthetic merits of these overwrought,
[#permalink]
02 Aug 2012, 00:50
Seems to me we're dealing with 2 different issues here.
In the real world:
People {plural} can debate..., but no one (not even one {singular} of them) can dispute...
or
People {plural} can debate..., but none {plural} of those people can dispute...
Here are the grammar rules:
1. When the subject of the sentence is an indefinite pronoun (anyone, anybody, anything, everyone, everybody, everything, whatever, whoever, either, neither, someone, somebody, something, nothing, no one, nobody, each, every):
All these pronouns are singular. They either already have the word "one" in them, or you can insert "one" without changing the meaning (anybody = any one body).
2. When the subject of the sentence is an amount word (fraction, percent, part, majority, minority, remainder) or pronoun (NASMA):
All of these can be singular or plural, and are followed by "of" and a noun. That latter noun determines the verb. "None of the water is missing", but "None of the workers are missing"). NASMA stands for "none, any, some, most, all" (from least to greatest).
So, in the real world, as some folks have already pointed out, either format will do just fine.
You can argue that plural...plural has better parallelism, but the contrast between plural "people" & singular "one" works well also.
The right question, though, is what the GMAT wants. If this is indeed taken from or modelled after an Official question, and the Official Answer is (B), just accept (B) as written in stone and move on.