Harley1980 wrote:
The quality of the new products that ACME Corporation have developed over the past year and that have recently arrived on retailers’ shelves worry many business analysts, who think that the company has lost focus under the new CEO’s leadership.
(D) The quality of the new products that ACME Corporation has developed over the past year and that have recently arrived on retailers’ shelves worries
Responding to tags on a duplicate topic.
globaldesi and
JS1290 , this option D is different from the option D about which you asked.
This (D) contains
products, plural.
That does not modify
quality.
•
That modifies
products. That immediately follows
products. True, "that" can "reach back" over the prepositional phrase, but . . .
•
logically,
that cannot modify
quality.
Quality has not recently arrived on retailers shelves.
[That]
have arrived refers to
products.We have two that-clauses, both of which are "surrounded" by the subject and verb of
the main clause.The verb for
quality is
worries.
The [poor]
quality of XYZs
worries business analysts. (Business analysts worry about the quality of XYZs.)
Let's shorten and strip the sentence.
(D)
The quality of the new products that ACME Corporation has developed over the past year and that have recently arrived on retailers’ shelves worries many business analysts.The sentence, stripped:
The
quality of the new
{products} that
[ACME] [has developed] and that
{have recently arrived} worries many business analysts.
In between the main subject and main verb in green are two that-clauses.
That-clauses have their own subjects and verbs, marked in blue.
Find the subject and verb for each THAT clause. Those verbs are "used up."
Try to read logically.
Which one makes more sense: Is ACME Corp developing
quality? Or products?
Which one makes more sense: WHAT has arrived recently on retail shelves? Quality? or products?
After we assign a verb and subject to each THAT clause, they are not available to be a subject or verb in the main clause.
That-clause #1: [products] that
ACME has developed
Subject? ACME (Company)
Verb? HAS developed.
-- Correct. The corporation is singular. "Corporation" in the company's name is not plural and
-- at the end of the sentence we learn that
the company HAS [singular] lost focus.
AND
That-clause #2: [
products [that]] . . .
have recently arrived
Subject?
ProductsVerb?
have arrivedOne way to find the verb of the main clause, then, is to make sure that each that-clause has its verb (and its subject).
In this sentence it's easier to work from inside out.
Subject of the main clause?
qualityVerb in the main clause?
worriesI hope that analysis helps. If you still have questions, I am happy to try to help.
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