Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent : SC Archive

DYNAMITE

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Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

07 Jun 2011, 06:43

1

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00:00

A

B

C

D

E

Difficulty:

15% (low)

Question Stats:

74% (00:40) correct

26% (00:54) wrong

based on 82 sessions

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Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent polls, believes that character is the first consideration in assessing the worth of a politician.

A believes that character is the first

B believes that character is first a

C believes that character is at first

D believe that character is at first

E believe that character is the first

Is the subject singular or plural and WHY?

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agdimple333

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Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

07 Jun 2011, 08:49

The subject is plural - 'one third of registered voters'... so verb should be 'believe'

Answer E.

DYNAMITE

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Joined: 09 Jun 2010

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Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

07 Jun 2011, 08:56

Can you explain what is wrong with my thinking then:

of is a preposition, thus what follows it is the object. So the actual subject is one-third and "of registered voters" serves as a prepositional phrase which acts an adjective.

agdimple333

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Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

Updated on: 07 Jun 2011, 09:51

1

Kudos

DYNAMITE wrote:

Can you explain what is wrong with my thinking then:

of is a preposition, thus what follows it is the object. So the actual subject is one-third and "of registered voters" serves as a prepositional phrase which acts an adjective.

yes that is correct and you have to refer the object of the preposition. So in the above, object is 'registered voters' , so we chose 'believe' to agree in subject-verb pair.

Consider following additional examples -

One third of the city is employed.
One third of the people are employed.
75% of the icecream is over.
75% of the icecreams are over.

Originally posted by agdimple333 on 07 Jun 2011, 09:35.
Last edited by agdimple333 on 07 Jun 2011, 09:51, edited 1 time in total.

fluke

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Joined: 20 Dec 2010

Posts: 1118

Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

07 Jun 2011, 09:46

1

Kudos

DYNAMITE wrote:

Can you explain what is wrong with my thinking then:

of is a preposition, thus what follows it is the object. So the actual subject is one-third and "of registered voters" serves as a prepositional phrase which acts an adjective.

Yes, this is an exception to the rule.

If we have something that is showing us the count/number before "of the noun" prepositional phrase, the verb must agree with the noun as nicely explained by agdimple333 earlier.

Poma777

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Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

14 Jun 2011, 07:39

Tricky one. If you look closely the subject is plural "voterS" and not "one third", which is singular. So E is correct.

metallicafan

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Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

14 Jun 2011, 08:33

+1 E

When we talk about fractions or percentages, the number of the noun after "of" is what really matters.

MBAhereIcome

Current Student

Joined: 07 Aug 2011

Status:mba here i come!

Posts: 151

Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

14 Aug 2011, 06:01

this, my friend, is NOT a 700+ level question.

L

carcass

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Posts: 4368

Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

23 Aug 2011, 13:19

MBAhereIcome wrote:

this, my friend, is NOT a 700+ level question.

I agree.........impossible. is not a 700 level question
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rajeevrks27

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Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

27 Dec 2011, 08:09

+1 E
below 600
20 secs to destroy.
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acdbe2003

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Joined: 12 Nov 2011

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GMAT Date: 12-15-2011

Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

27 Dec 2011, 20:11

Clearly E
S-V agreement and the first better than at first

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gmatclubot

Re: Fully one third of registered voters, according to recent [#permalink]

27 Dec 2011, 20:11

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