Despite their numerous attempts to do so, scientists have

In option E here past form is used & in option A present perfect form is used.in option E If it was written "their numerous attempts to do so,scientists were not able to
then what would happen?

I feel like I should know this, but does the antecedent always have to come before the pronoun? Here I assumed the it was referring to the reaction which is the only singular noun in the second part of the sentence. Hence went with B instead of A.

I am always confused with singular and pural, here I marked option E, just because Attempts, which is acting as a verb in this sentence, is singular.


Can you please clarify, attempts is singular or attempt >>>????

Despite their numerous attempts to do so,

In this subordinate clause, can some one please help me to locate subject and verb.

The implied meaning is :

Despite numerous attempts ,
Scientists were not able to sustain
and
Scientists are still not able to sustain

- So the stem talks about an action that started in the past and still continues
Hence - HAVE is required

(A) is correct.

(E) though it is active , but only covers past attempts. The meaning here must cover past and present

What I know is each clause must have its own subject and verb, here I was unable to locate them. Can you please clarify

Hi prakhar39,

Despite their numerous attempts to do so, scientists have not been able to sustain a controlled nuclear fusion reaction.

IMO,
"Their" becomes the subject in subordinate clause.

Ideally if you just rearrange the sentence, the structure would become more clearer.
"Scientist have not been able to sustain ("Fluff"-a controlled nuclear fusion reaction), despite their numerous attempts to do so."

Now, see their logically implies to the main subject of the clause " Scientists".

Hope it makes sense.

aditi2013

I am noob here, so please help me with this:

A sentence is made up of clauses, and atleast one subject and verb must exist in clause. Now, going by this logic in subordinate clause Despite their numerous attempts to do so, here subject would be Their and verb attempts( this is what I thought) and to make verb agree in number with subject I went with option E.

Can you please clarify this.

Hi there , lets try to break this up for convenience -

Correct idiomatic usage of despite is : Despite X , Y ( Despite + Noun)

Eliminate the options -


(E) here will be incorrect , were not not able to sustain a controlled nuclear fusion reaction suggests a past activity , hence distorts the meaning of the sentence......

1st Split- Scientists started something in past and they are unable to do that till today. Hence, Past perfect is required. D and E are out.

(A)their numerous attempts to do so, scientists have not been able to. 'So' correctly refers to 'sustain a controlled nuclear fusion'
(B)their numerous attempts to do it, scientists have not been able to. What 'it' refers to?

(C)them numerously attempting to do so, scientists have not been able to.'them numerously attempting to do so' is weird sentence structure.

Original sentence is correct.

mam, my question here is (irrespective of OA):

Every clause must have a subject and a verb, here in subordinate clause despite their numerous attempts to do so, can you help me to locate subject and verb. I assumed subject was Their and only option was attempts to act as verb.

So, here in this question I made this mistake, overlooked other errors, but what will be verb in this clause. ??

I have been asking kind of silly question again and again, but can you please follow the post to just above to clarify my doubt.

"Their" cannot be a subject. It is not a noun but a possessive pronoun, and so serves to modify the noun "attempts." "They attempt" would be a subject-verb pair, but "their attempt" must be a noun phrase. Consider these:

They wanted broccoli on their pizza. (They = subject, wanted = verb, their = modifier for pizza. It just tells us whose pizza we're talking about.)
I saw Mira's excuse as a polite way of refusing to participate. (I = subject, saw = verb, Mira's = modifier for the noun "excuse." "Excuse" is also a verb, but not in this sentence.)

Also, the structure of the sentence in the original question prevents us from using a subject-verb pair, so it wouldn't even make sense to say "they attempt." The structure "Despite X" is a modifier, not a clause. It is meant to provide a contrast to the statement that follows. Further, the "X" needs to be a noun:

Despite the rain, we went ahead with our plans.
Despite my father's disapproval, I took the job.

In both of the cases above, we are saying that someone took an action despite some *thing* that might dissuade them (rain, disapproval). I couldn't use a subject-verb pair, as in "Despite I was hungry, I went running." That's not how "despite" works.

There is no subordinate clause in this case. "Despite their numerous attempts to do so" is a phrase since there is no verb in this part - "attempts" is a noun here.

I don't understand why B) is incorrect, I think that "it" refers to "controlled nuclear fusion reaction".
if that is the case, it makes total sense.

Additionally, is there a way to know when to use "to do so" and "to do it"??
Thank you in andvance!!

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