A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important

+1 for C.
My doubt is that if "one of the factors" is considered plural how do we get "it" in the final clause which says "like it did earlier in the decade)..

Can someone explain this?

A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.

keep vs keeps - factors is plural hence "keep"
like vs as - like is used to compare only nouns and not phrase containing verbs . hence "as"
"it" is a pronoun that refers to Housing Market

dhanyamv88 has it covered. Nice work!

i selected b because "one of the" was used hence singular.

B uses "keep," which is plural. This matches the subject "factors." A higher interest rate is one of the factors. Which factors? The factors that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control.

isn't "It" in the answer ambiguous ?

It's fine to use "it" when there is more than one singular noun, as long as it's clear which one should be the antecedent. Here, "as it did" is following directly after a reference to the housing market spiraling out of control, so the intended meaning is clear.

A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.

(A) that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.
(B) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did earlier in the decade
(C) that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did earlier in the decade
(D) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, like earlier in the decade
(E) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade

Lets simply follow the grammar rules.
1/ one of Xs that KEEP
one of Xs KEEPS
So, A and C are out.

2/ "LIKE" must be followed by nouns, pron-s, and noun phrases.
''LIKE'' is never followed by a clause or a prepositional phrase.
So, D and E are out.

Instead, Use "AS + clause" -- B is the right answer.

Hope it helps

I think the answer should be B.
What keeps the market from spiralling out is the A high Interest Rate
So it should be keeps....

Tell me where I am wrong ....

The subject for the verb "keep" / "keeps" is "that", and "that" refers to the noun "factors" - hence "that" is plural and so the verb should also be plural, i.e. "keep".

Hi,

I understand your explanation, based upon it I was trying to make few examples of my own to get better understanding of the concept - but ended up getting confused.
Can you please help me with below sentence ?

A volcano is only of the factors, albeit an important one, that destroys/destroy the biodiversity of the island.

As before, "that" refers to "factors" and is hence plural - the verb should also be plural: "destroy" is correct.

In order to understand this structure, first identify the antecedent of the relative pronoun "that". In general identification is easy because "that" would generally come immediately after the noun it refers to (as per the modifier touch rule). However there are some exceptions (such as this one), in which the modifier is separated from the noun it refers to - this example is such an exception. Manhattan SC guide explains these exceptions in detail. This particular example falls under the following category:

A short non-essential phrase intervenes and is set off by commas. (Here: "albeit an important one".)

Doesn't "that" refer to the nearest noun, In this case "one" in albeit an important one

Try reading the sentence by removing the phrase " albeit an important one", you can find the actual meaning of the sentence. That must refer to the factors, hence we are using "keep".

As per the meaning of the sentence, Higher interest rate keeps the market from spiraling.

Tip: In such sentences, try to remove the phrases between the two commas and then check the overall structure. If it makes sense, it is correct. Else you are missing something.

Hi DmitryFarber,

Well your post is pretty old but I hope you can still clear my doubt. In the sentence "factors" comes in a prepositional phrase "of the factors", then how can it be the subject of the sentence?

Thanks
Dkingdom

Dkingdom

To be clear, "factors" isn't the main subject of the sentence. The main subject-verb pair is "rate is," for a simple core of "A rate is one of the factors." However, the phrase beginning with "that keep" is modifying the noun "factors." When we ask "What keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control?" the answer is "factors."

I thought the higher interest rate is the subject here. Can someone explain why 'higher interest rate' is not considered as subject ?