As surprising as it may seem, in the medium

Question

As surprising as it may seem, in the medium-long term Iceland is one of the places that  are most likely to benefit from  global warming.

A) are most likely to benefit from
B) is most likely to benefit from
C) are likely to benefit from
D) is likely to benefit from
E) are most likely to benefit

daagh · Answer

Unless there is some strong reason to believe that ‘most likely’ is better than ‘likely’, this question wouldn’t merit any look. Obviously, while the normal expectation is that the outcome may not benefit Iceland, in the medium - long term, the outcome may be surprisingly good.In this, it is difficult to perceive how ‘most likely’ is going to be a decisive factor in comparison to ‘likely’. Perhaps OE may be helpful

HieuNguyenVN · Answer

Agree, it's easy to narrow down to choices A & C, but then there is no basis to prefer "Most likely" over "likely".
A quick search I found this question from Economist GMAT Blog Post, and here is the reason, which I don't agree, to eliminate choice C:
 
IMO, as long as the sentence is logical, correct, clear and concise, it is fine.

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL SOLUTION

When you look at the first word in each answer option, you can quickly deduce that this question is about a singular / plural issue.

Next, notice the presence of the relative pronoun “ that ” in the question. The most important relative pronouns for our purposes are “who”, “which” and “that”. In this case, the rule is that the verb that follows the relative pronoun must agree in number with the word that comes immediately before the relative pronoun. Notice in this sentence that the word “ places ” comes before the relative pronoun “ that ”. Therefore, the verb that follows the relative pronoun must be plural to agree with “places”. This is because of the special construction “ one of the + plural + relative pronoun ”.

Now that you know the verb following the relative pronoun must be plural, you can eliminate answer options B and D.
 
Notice how answer option C changes the meaning of the original sentence. ' Likely ' is  not the same  as ' most likely '. So, you can eliminate C.

The elimination of the preposition “ from ” in answer option E changes the meaning of the original sentence completely. Therefore, eliminate E. 
That leaves only one option: A is correct.

In summary, remember the important rule that in the special construction “  one of the + plural + relative pronoun  ” the verb that follows the relative pronoun agrees in number with the word that comes immediately before the relative pronoun. The verb is therefore plural. Remembering such relatively simple rules will make you feel more secure about sentence correction and will allow you to spend more time on other more difficult questions.

shekyonline · Answer

As surprising as it may seem, in the medium-long term Iceland is one of the places that  are  most likely to benefit from global warming.

first point-  benefit  from    E eliminated.
2nd-   'are'   B D eliminated.
'most likely' is preferred to 'likely'.
 A correct. 
a, are most likely to benefit from
b, is most likely to benefit from
c, are likely to benefit from
d, is likely to benefit from
e, are most likely to benefit

VerbalBot · Answer

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As surprising as it may seem, in the medium

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