Bunuel wrote:
A pattern of accidents, of personnel problems, and of low performance ratings for mechanical systems have marked the servicing and maintaining of the new power plant.
A. have marked the servicing and maintaining
B. have marked the servicing and maintenance
C. have marked the service and maintenance
D. has marked the service and maintaining
E. has marked the servicing and maintenance
daagh need help on this ,i always get confused in such constructions
A pattern of accidents , of personnel problems , and of low performances : is singluar as pattern is singular ,my question is
it can be read like
a pattern of accidents , a pattern of personnel problems , and a pattern of low performances : then isnot it pluaral
if i belive that of is prep phrase so subject cannot be in prep pharse
then should not it be
a pattern of [accidents ,personnel problems and low performances] : then singular
but in that case how will i know personal problems and low performaces also are part of a pattern of .
If i see this question :
A surge in new home sales and a drop in weekly unemployment claims suggest that the economy might not be as weak as some analysts previously thought.
here a surge and a drop are two diff things so plural subjetc is claer
but say
it had been
1)a surge in new home sales and weekly employment
what will it be : singular or plural
will it be read like
A) a surge in new home sales and a surge in weekly employemnt --
will this be plural or singular?
or as
B) a surge in new home sales(something) and weekly employment (some other thing) -- this will be plural right?
Also had it been
a surge in new home sales and in weekly empolment
how to read this
D)a surge in new home sales and a surge in weekly employemnt
or E) a surge [in new home sales and weekly employemnt ]
Plz clear .
Thanks a lot