jefferyk wrote:
A constantly-increasing supply of spent uranium rods and a halted plan to send all nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain suggests that the United States' problem of what to do with highly reactive spent fuel rods will be much more difficult to solve than was initially thought.
(A) Yucca Mountain suggests that the United States' problem of what to do with highly reactive spent fuel rods will be much more difficult to solve than was initially thought.
(B) Yucca Mountain suggest that the United States' problem of what to do with highly reactive spent fuel rods will be much more difficult to solve than was initially thought.
(C) Yucca Mountain, suggests that the spent fuel rods might be much more difficult to solve than was initially thought by the United States.
(D) Yucca Mountain suggest that the United States' problem of what to do with highly reactive spent fuel rods are much more difficult to solve than initially thought.
(E) Yucca Mountain, suggesting that the spent fuel rods might be more difficult to solve than the United States thought.
OA Below: The underlined portion of the sentence contains the singular verb suggests, so check whether it agrees with its subject. The non-underlined portion of the sentence uses the plural compound subject a constantly-increasing supply…and a halted plan, which disagrees with the singular verb suggests, so there is a subject-verb agreement error. Eliminate choice A and look for obvious repeaters. Choice C is an obvious repeater that also contains the singular verb suggests, so eliminate choice C. Now, evaluate the remaining answer choices individually, looking for reasons to eliminate each.
Choice B fixes the original subject-verb agreement error by using the plural verb suggest, which agrees with the plural subject a constantly-increasing supply…and a halted plan, and introduces no new errors. Keep choice B. Choice D corrects the original subject-verb agreement error by using the plural verb suggest which agrees with the plural subject a constantly-increasing supply…and a halted plan. However, choice D introduces a new subject-verb agreement error by pairing the singular subject the United States’ problem with the plural verb are, so eliminate choice D. Choice E uses the verb suggesting, which introduces a new error by incorrectly using the present participle form of the verb rather the simple singular present tense, resulting in a sentence fragment. Eliminate choice E.
Choice A: No. The singular verb suggests does not agree with the plural subject a constantly-increasing supply…and a halted plan. Subject-Verb agreement.
Choice B: Correct.
Choice C: No. The singular verb suggests does not agree with the plural subject a constantly-increasing supply…and a halted plan. Subject-Verb agreement.
Choice D: No. The plural verb are does not agree with the singular subject United States’ problem. Subject-Verb agreement.
Choice E: No. The present participle form of the verb suggesting is incorrect in a sentence that requires the simple present tense suggest. Verb tense.
The correct answer is choice B.
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Updated on: 19 Jul 2020, 04:35
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