From comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations about the American

Question

From comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations about the American obsession with all  things Hollywood have emerged Heart of the City, a series centered on celebrity gossip and popular movies that are inspiring  readers to send record volumes of fan mail to newspapers across the country.

(A) things Hollywood have emerged Heart of the City, a series centered on celebrity gossip and popular movies that are inspiring

(B) things Hollywood has emerged Heart of the City, a series centered on celebrity gossip and popular movies that is inspiring

(C) things that are related to Hollywood has emerged Heart of the City, a series centered on celebrity gossip and popular movies that inspire

(D) Hollywood things have emerged Heart of the City, a series centered on celebrity gossip and popular movies that are inspiring

(E) Hollywood things have emerged Heart of the City, a series centered on celebrity gossip and popular movies that inspire

This sentence displays two subject-verb agreement errors. Due to the inverted sentence structure, it is difficult to see that the subject of the first verb is the singular Heart of the City. The verb have emerged does not agree with this subject. The sentence should read: Heart of the City, a series centered on... has emerged from Mark Tatulli's observation. Have must be changed to the singular has to match the singular a series (Heart of the City).

Also, the subject of the second verb, are (inspiring) is the singular a series (referring to Heart of the City). The plural verb are (inspiring) must be changed to the singular is (inspiring).

Choices B and C change have to has, while choices D and E retain the original error and can be eliminated.

Choice B changes have to has and changes are to is without introducing additional errors. Choice B is therefore correct.

Choice C changes have to has but changes are inspiring to inspire; the singular subject series does not agree with the plural verb inspire.

Choice B is the best answer.
 
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But in B doesnt "that is inspiring" modify movies since according to MGMAT SC ,"that is inspiring" is a noun modifier and it modifies the noun which it in touch with

JoshKnewton · Answer

Thanks for inquiry! Hopefully helpful...

This is indeed a great example of an exception to the traditional noun modifier rule. Take a look at the sentence with the correct answer substituted in and the troublesome section in bold:

From comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations about the American obsession with all things Hollywood has emerged Heart of the City, a series centered on celebrity gossip and popular movies that is inspiring readers to send record volumes of fan mail to newspapers across the country.

At a glance it looks like phrase "that is inspiring" could modify the plural noun "movies," were we to change "is" to "are." The GMAT takes advantage of this confusion by giving you answer choices with the plural verb "are" and the plural present tense "inspire" for choice E. However if we keep reading after "inspiring" and consider the logic of the sentence, we can see that the phrase "that is inspiring" could not modify the noun "movies" without making an absurd sentence. Ask yourself what the focus of the sentence is. What is it that is inspiring readers to send record volumes of fan mail to newspapers across the country? Of course it is the series "Heart of the City," thoroughly described in this sentence as being from Mark Tatulli's witty observations and being centered on celebrity gossip, etc. etc.

If the "that is inspiring" phrase pertained to the noun "movies," you would have a laughable result. The sentence would say in effect, "Here is this series 'Heart of Darkness'. It comes from this witty comic artist, and it is focused on two things: celebrity gossip and a very specific sort of movies, movies that are inspiring readers to send record volumes of fan mail to newspapers (not magazines!) across the country, to be exact." Unless you are under the impression that the GMAT is written by sociopaths, you can rule out the possibility of such an interpretation. Take a minute, step back, and consider what the sentence is actually saying - what is the subject and what is it doing. Doing so will allow you to avoid this sort of confusion.

On a final note: Even if you are confused about the phrase around the verb "inspire," you can still rule out answer choices A, D, and E here since they all contain the first subject-verb agreement error with "have emerged."'

Cheers,
Josh@knewton

metallicafan · Answer

+1 B

S-V agreement. 
Exceptions to the "touch rule" related to the modifiers: "a series centered on celebrity gossip and popular movies" is a noun phrase, which is modified by "that is inspiring..."

Aj85 · Answer

Hiii,

This sentence follows inverted subject verb construction. Reverse the sentence order and you will see correct verb should be 'has' and not 'have'. Heart of city have emerged or heart of city has emerged ? Has emerged is correct usage because 'heart of city" is name of a TV series. Answer choice A., D and E are wrong because of this faulty usage. Answer choice C is incorrect because it is wordy and grammatically wrong. A series 'inspires' and not 'inspire'. It is a tricky sentence. Answer B has correct subject verb agreement and is correct.

RivaM · Answer

If you remove the middlemen sentences you get

From comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations

about the American obsession with all things Hollywood

has emerged Heart of the City,

a series about celebrity gossip and popular movies

that is inspiring readers

to send record volumes of fan mail to newspapers across the country.

B is correct.

rphardu · Answer

Thanks Aj85 for analyzing question as inverted subject verb concept.

Let's analyze the question:
From comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations about the American obsession with all things Hollywood have emerged  Heart of the City ,   a series about celebrity gossip and popular movies that are inspiring readers to send record volumes of fan mail to newspapers across the country.  
Let's remove modifier.
From comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations about the American obsession with all things Hollywood  have emerged    Heart of the City.  
What is subject of sentence.? What has emerged from artist;s witty observations? = Ans =" Heart of the city"
What is the verb in sentence ? have emerged

To understand sentence, let's move subject before the verb. Please note sentence written in above form is not wrong so correct answer might contain verb before subject.
"Hear of the city" has emerged from comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations about the American obsession with all things Hollywood .
Option A,D,E can be eliminated.

Now with B and C.
In C , correct form of verb for singular noun "series" is inspires so "C" is also out.

If any question, please revert.

Correct answer is B.

If my explanation helped, please give me kudos. Thanks!!.

mayur666 · Answer

Can someone explain what and how 'are' in the option C is referring to?

Because I read that 'are' is wrongly referring to a singular subject in option C.

Gian · Answer

Task is to find the subject in the first Independent Clause (IC)

<From comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations about the American obsession with all things Hollywood have emerged Heart of the City>, ..........................

=> Find the verb first which is much easy than finding the subject. : Verb -> have emerged

Now ask this question -> What has emerged as a result of the observations about American obsession with all things Hollywood ?

It has to be "Heart of the City", so here the subject comes after the Verb. This sentence is an example of Inverted Subject. (Check MGMAT SC Guide to know more about this specific topic )

But, is Heart of the City singular or plural    ? Read the other half of the sentence to find out.

From comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations about the American obsession with all  things Hollywood have emerged Heart of the City, a series about celebrity gossip and popular movies that are inspiring  readers to send record volumes of fan mail to newspapers across the country.

--->   a series   modifies   "Heart of the City"  . It means that this is the name of a TV series (proper noun) and hence has to be SINGULAR.

You can also rearrange the sentence to check whether you identified the subject correctly:

Heart of the city has emerged from comic artist Mark Tatulli's witty observations about the American obsession with all things Hollywood. --> sounds perfect

Does it help to clear your doubt ?

rshreyas89 · Answer

Shouldn't it be 'All hollywood things' or 'All things related to hollywood'? This was one of the criteria to eleminate B? Can someone please help?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  rshreyas89 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "all things X" is an idiomatic construction used to refer to all things somehow related to X.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

kapoor6295 · Answer

In option C, shouldn't inspire relate to gossip and popular movies rather than to series, hence making 'is inspiring' in option B seem wrong?

VerbalBot · Answer

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