Although Plato's inspiration for his descriptions of the civilization

Hi Sasindran,

I want to first start off by saying the previous two responses are on the right track - thanks urvashis09 & aarkay! Here is a short break-down of how to answer this question:

First, let's look at the difference between using appears/appear. In the sentence, this is referring back to the singular word "inspiration," so we should only consider answers that use the singular "appears." We can now rule out answers C, D, & E.

Second, let's look at the difference between using are/is. In the sentence, this is referring back to the singular "a mystery," so let's stick with the singular "is." We can now rule out answer A, leaving us with only B, which is the right answer!

B seems best: appears to have been the Minoan ruins of Crete and traditional stories of the partial destruction of the island of Thera, what remains a mystery is

faults in bold:

A appears to have been the Minoan ruins of Crete and traditional stories of the partial destruction of the island of Thera, what remains a mystery are
B appears to have been the Minoan ruins of Crete and traditional stories of the partial destruction of the island of Thera, what remains a mystery is---->correct !!
C appear to have been the Minoan ruins of Crete and traditional stories of the partial destruction of the island of Thera, what remains a mystery is
D appear to have been the Minoan ruins of Crete and traditional stories of the partial destruction of the island of Thera, what remains a mystery are
E appear to be the Minoan ruins of Crete and traditional stories of the partial destruction of the island of Thera, that which remains mysterious is

Option B. "inspiration" is singular, verb it gets must also be singular, hence appears. "a mystery" is singular, hence the verb it gets must be "is".

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

The underlined portion of this sentence contains three verbs ("appears," "remains," and "are") all of which must agree in number with their subjects and follow the correct tense sequence. The subject of "appears" is the singular noun "inspiration," so this verb is correct as written. The subject of "remains" and "are" is "what," which, since it refers to "mystery," is also singular. Thus, "remains" is correct, but "are" is incorrect. Look for a choice that uses the singular is without introducing any new errors.

A vertical scan of the first word shows a 2-3 split between "appears" and "appear." You can eliminate (C), (D), and (E) immediately based on this word.

Based on the initial analysis, you know that (A) is incorrect. Only choice (B) maintains subject-verb agreement throughout and is therefore correct.

For the record, in addition to beginning with "appear," (D) ends with "are," committing the same error here as the original sentence. Choice (E) introduces the new error "appear to be," which is not only plural instead of singular but also places Plato's inspiration in the present rather than in the past, when this long-dead Greek philosopher lived. Also, "that which" is needlessly wordy here.

"inspiration" needs a singular verb. So choose "appears". So we are down to option A and B. "Mystery" needs singular verb "is". So discard A and choose B.
Correct ans B.

Posted from my mobile device

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.