zz0vlb wrote:
That twenty-one ceramic dog figurines were discovered during the excavating of a 1000 year old Hohokam village in Tempe, Arizona,
has nearly doubled the number of these artifacts known to exists.
A. That twenty-one ceramic dog figurines were discovered during the excavating
B. Twenty-one ceramic dog figurines discovered at the excavation
C. Discovering Twenty-one ceramic dog figurines at the excavating
D. Ceramic dog figurines, twenty-one of which were discovered during excavating
E. The discovery of twenty-one ceramic dog figurines during the excavation
ANSWER IS UNDISPUTED OPTION E
Look at the non underlined part, (which as per GMAT rule contains no error) and notice the linking verb
"HAS" (Linking verbs such as "IS" "HAS" "BE" "BEING" "WAS" etc etc show a relationship between the subject and the complement)
It clearly indicated that the complement must be
singular because
"has" is singular.
So the subject of the sentence
CAN ONLY BE SINGULAR AND CANNOT BE PLURAL.In all option A,B,C,D
the subject is figurines, which is the plural of figure .... so none of them can be the correct options
In ONLY E in
subject of the sentence is discovery which is singular and hence correctly links with "has"
A. That twenty-one ceramic dog figurines were discovered during the excavating
WRONG SV - plural "figurines" + singular "has" --->INCORRECTB. Twenty-one ceramic dog figurines discovered at the excavation
WRONG SV - plural "figurines" + singular "has"---> INCORRECTC. Discovering Twenty-one ceramic dog figurines at the excavating
WRONG SV - plural "figurines" + singular "has" INCORRECTD. Ceramic dog figurines, twenty-one of which were discovered during excavating
WRONG SV - plural "figurines" + singular "has"---> INCORRECTE. The discovery of twenty-one ceramic dog figurines during the excavation
RIGHT Singular subject "DISCOVERY+singular linking verb "has" --->CORRECT The
discovery of twenty-one ceramic dog figurines during the excavation of a 1000 year old Hohokam village in Tempe, Arizona,
has nearly doubled the number of these artifacts known to exists.