Greatly influenced by the Protestant missionary Samuel Kirkland, the Oneida was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided with the colonists during the American Revolution.

A. was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided --- Oneida is the name of a nation or a tribe originating from that part but not certainly the name of some people and therefore it is not normally referred by the relative pronoun 'who'.
B. was alone of the five-nation Iroquois League when they sided -- it is not clear a what 'they' stands for. There are no plural nouns that the word 'they could represent.
C. alone among the five-nation Iroquois League sided --- Correct choice-- sided is the direct verb of the subject the Oneida.
D. were the only ones out of the five nations of Iroquois League in siding --The Oneida is a singular noun and hence cannot take the plural verb 'were'
E. only of the five-nation Iroquois League had sided -- had sided is wrong tense. There is no other corresponding past tense event that took place after their siding.

_________________

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that among the five-nation Iroquois League, only the Oneida sided with the colonists during the American Revolution.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Pronouns + Meaning + Tenses + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• "who" is only used to refer to human beings.
• "when" is used to refer to a point in time.
• If a sentence contains multiple past actions, the past perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “had”) is used to refer to all but the most recent action; the simple past tense is used to refer to the most recent action.

A: Trap. This answer choice incorrectly refers to "the Oneida" - the name of a nation - with "who"; remember, "who" is only used to refer to human beings.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "the Oneida" with the plural pronoun "they". Further, Option B alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "when they sided"; the use of "when" incorrectly implies that the Oneida was alone among the five-nation Iroquois League, at the point in time when it sided with the colonists during the American Revolution; the intended meaning is that among the five-nation Iroquois League, only the Oneida sided with the colonists during the American Revolution; remember, "when" is used to refer to a point in time.

C: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "the Oneida" with the verb "sided", which can refer to both plural and singular nouns. Moreover, Option C avoids the pronoun errors seen in Options A, B, and D, as it uses no pronouns. Further, Option C uses the phrase "alone among the five-nation Iroquois League sided", conveying the intended meaning - that among the five-nation Iroquois League, only the Oneida sided with the colonists during the American Revolution. Additionally, Option C correctly uses the simple past tense verb "sided" to refer to the latter of two actions that concluded in the past - the Oneida being influenced by the Protestant missionary Samuel Kirkland and the Oneida siding with the colonists during the American Revolution. Besides, Option C is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "the Oneida" with the plural verb "were" and the plural pronoun "ones". Further, Option D uses the needlessly wordy and passive construction "the only ones out of the five nations of Iroquois League in siding", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had sided" to refer to the later of two actions that concluded in the past - the Oneida being influenced by the Protestant missionary Samuel Kirkland and the Oneida siding with the colonists during the American Revolution; remember, if a sentence contains multiple past actions, the past perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “had”) is used to refer to all but the most recent action; the simple past tense is used to refer to the most recent action.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Past Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team
_________________

3. Greatly influenced by the Protested missionary Samuel Kirkland, the Oneida was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided with the colonists during the American Revolution.

"who" is a restrictive modifier here, as it is not set off by commas. This means it is incorrectly modifying "Iroquois League" than "Oneida"

A. was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided - Incorrect because of the above pre-thinking
B. was alone of the five-nation Iroquois League when they sided - As per the intended meaning of the sentence, "they" (plural pronoun) should refer to "Oneida" (singular subject), but the choice of pronoun is incorrect. It should have been "he/ she" as per the context.
C. alone among the five-nation Iroquois League sided - Hold on.
D. were the only ones out of the five nations of Iroquois League in siding - "the" before "Oneida" implies it is collective noun ("The Football League") and hence a singular verb is needed. Therefore, the choice of "were" is incorrect.
E. only of the five-nation Iroquois League had sided - This sentence is set in the past, and no sequencing "had sided" is needed. We do not know what happened after the action of "had sided" was done?

This is a tricky one and its on my error log

This Sc tests the concept - " one of + group of things"
X in the only one of Y
X and Y must be comparable
In the above SC we are comparing Oneida (Nation) to a League
=>A,B,E are out

Another concept tested here are the verbs before and after the phrase " one of + group of things"

verb before the phrase must be singular
Sam is one of the students
verb after the phrase must be plural
Here is one of teh pens that were lost

=> D is out


C wins.

Greatly influenced by the Protested missionary Samuel Kirkland, the Oneida was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided with the colonists during the American Revolution.

A. was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided ("who" wrongly refers to Ironquois Leaque)
B. was alone of the five-nation Iroquois League when they sided (correct)
C. alone among the five-nation Iroquois League sided (missing verb, sided is note a verb)
D. were the only ones out of the five nations of Iroquois League in siding
E. only of the five-nation Iroquois League had sided (the Oneida only of ... gramatically incorrect)

Thanks man....would appreciate it if you can give me a few more examples of correct comparisons by using 'one of the group' clause[/quote]

Vanilla is one of the few flavors that I like.
Aamir Khan is one of the fine actors in Bollywood.
Ashwin is one of the hard working guys on the Gmatclub.[/quote]

From this I gather that Vanilla is a subset of flavours
Aamir Khan is a subset of actors
Ashwin is a subset of hard working guys

so why would we not say
Oneida is a subset of 5 nation league (as league is a group of nations)

Sorry for being soo persistent about this, but i am trying my fundamentals correct.

A. was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided - 'who' changes the sentence meaning
B. was alone of the five-nation Iroquois League when they sided - wordiness 'alone of'
C. alone among the five-nation Iroquois League sided - 'alone... sided with...
D. were the only ones out of the five nations of Iroquois League in siding - wordiness
E. only of the five-nation Iroquois League had sided - misuse of past perfect tense

I go with C.

In A...it means that Iroquois League who sided with the colonists ....whereas it is "Oneida" that sided with colonoist...who changes the meaning...

After some more thinking - my thoughts are,



The above sentence changes the meaning of the sentence to indicate that Oneida was only one of the five nations which sided with the colonists (as if there were others too). So the sentence is ambiquous.

But choosing 'C', it makes more crisp sense of the sentence which clearly says it was ONLY oneida which signed with the five nations and no one else.



Does this make sense ?

I think gmat922's final conclusion would be valid if the article weren't present (as in A2 below):

A)...the Oneida was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided with the colonists...

A2)...the Oneida was only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided with the colonists...

Because we're dealing with A instead of A2, A is incorrect because the object of the preposition of is singular, which disagrees with the one construction. One of many is correct; option A phrases it as one of one (one of the...League, yuck!).

One could correctly reword A to read:

...the Oneida was the only one of the five Iroquois League nations who sided with the colonists...

Apart from meaning issue for option A.. Its also incorrect since who can only refer to people
Meaning issue with B
Option C is correct
Option D Sv issue
Option E incorrect usage of "had"

A) was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided

A who is wrong
B when is out of scope of the original meaning
C The Oneida... sided with - correct
D THE Oneida / Were - wrong
E only of the five - wrong

Posted from GMAT ToolKit

SO AS IT BOILS DOWN TO TWO CHOICES C AND D(BOTH ARE CORRECT BY THE WAY)
we should choose C as it is less wordy and D

You shouldn't confuse with THE ONEIDA,
so you have a simple rule whenever THE+TRIBE is used (eg. THE ONEIDA) such constructions are always and always considered plural so the oneida will definitely go with WERE that's why you can cancel A&B.
Another example is THE FRENCH "ARE" very generous people so here THE french means the french people similarly you can apply this above
Regarding E it doesn't make any sense

HOPE IT HELPS

In option D, Oneida is the name of a nation (e.g. England or France): it is one "out of the five nations". The part "out of the five nations" makes it clear that Oneida is not the people of a country (e.g. English or French) as you interpreted. Therefore "were" is wrong.

The below question is purely based on meaning. As per the meaning we are saying, he was the one who sided something and others didn’t do so.

Greatly influenced by the Protested missionary Samuel Kirkland, the Oneida was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided with the colonists during the American Revolution.
A. was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided --> Did only he sided or others also sided? Here who sided is referring to the league. So, how could he be the only one? Incorrect
B. was alone of the five-nation Iroquois League when they sided Same as A + incorrect usage of when.
C. alone among the five-nation Iroquois League sided
D. were the only ones out of the five nations of Iroquois League in siding
E. only of the five-nation Iroquois League had sided No need of Had. Incorrect
_________________

C can't have the same modifier problem as A, since it swaps out the modifier at the end ("who sided") for a verb ("sided"). That's not a modifier at all. On the contrary, the preceding text ("alone among the . . . League") modifies "sided"! The meaning is that of the five nations in the Iroquois League, only the Oneida sided with the colonists. This is definitely not a fragment.
_________________

Similar to the usage of -- "The Americans" or "The French", "The Oneida" is a plural subject and thus requires a PLURAL VERB "were" and not "was". Thus, A and B are incorrect for PRONOUN NUMBER AGREEMENT error.

Choice d is wrong because it is extremely, incredibly wordy. 'out of' is also a problem (because the GMAT would only use 'out of' if it meant literally out of something, or in standard idioms like '3 out of 4').

choice e is wrong because it uses the past perfect to refer to a single event. you need the simple past here (just 'sided', not 'had sided'), because there is no more recent time signal to justify the use of the past perfect for the 'earlier' event.

Thus, choice C is correct.

Dear Verbal Experts,

For 'C' to be the answer what is the main verb in the sentence? Also, Influenced by.....sided with shouldn't there be a sequence of these events?

Expert reply on please.

Thank you!

Can I say that in option A who is ambiguous???