The plantation owners are a worried lot because the rains

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The plantation owners are a worried lot because the rains [#permalink]

31 Dec 2012, 22:08

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Question Stats:

33% (02:32) correct

66% (01:40) wrong

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The plantation owners are a worried lot because the rains are just around the corner and neither the topsoil has arrived nor have the plants.
A) neither the topsoil has arrived nor have the plants
B) neither the topsoil has arrived nor the plants
C) neither the topsoil nor the plants has arrived
D) neither of the topsoil or plants has arrived
E) neither has the topsoil nor the plants have arrived

please explain your answer.

Source: Aristotle SC

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Re: SC - Parallelism question [#permalink]

31 Dec 2012, 22:26

taurean wrote:

If you break underlined portion into two parts, then things will become very clear to you.
i) the topsoil has not arrived
ii) the plants have not arrived.
Since plants is plural entity, therefore we use "have" instead of "has".
Also keep in mind that in the "neither......nor" construction, the verb will depend on the proximity with "nor". If the noun closest to "nor" is plural, then the verb will be plural and vice versa.

Only A follows these rules and hence the answer.
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Re: SC - Parallelism question [#permalink]

31 Dec 2012, 22:36

I am confused with the position of the verbs in neither-nor construction....

neither the topsoil has arrived nor have the plants

has is placed after the topsoil whereas have is placed before the plants....

I expected neither has the topsoil nor have the plants arrived (or) neither the topsoil has nor the plants have arrived

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Re: SC - Parallelism question [#permalink]

31 Dec 2012, 22:48

Yeah! I can understand, but on GMAT you are not supposed to choose the ideal answer but rather the best among the choices.
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Re: SC - Parallelism question [#permalink]

31 Dec 2012, 22:53

I thought E is close....in fact, it is the mirror image of A....Can you explain why A is better than E?

Re: SC - Parallelism question [#permalink] 31 Dec 2012, 22:53

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The plantation owners are a worried lot because the rains

The plantation owners are a worried lot because the rains

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