In most major metropolitan areas, the number of hate crimes per capita is significantly lower in neighborhoods in which the population is racially mixed, that is, no more than one third of the area’s inhabitants belong to the same ethnic group; it is theorized that a person is less likely to commit a hate crime against someone who he regards as a neighbor.

A. that is, no more than one third of the area’s inhabitants belong to the same ethnic group; it is theorized that a person is less likely to commit a hate crime against someone who he regards as a neighbor

B. that is, no more than one third of the area’s inhabitants belong to the same ethnic group; it is theorized that a person is less likely to commit a hate crime against someone whom he regards as a neighbor

C. that is, no more than one third of the area’s inhabitants belongs to the same ethnic group; it is theorized that a person is less likely to commit a hate crime against someone whom he regards as a neighbor

D. that is, no more than one third of the area’s inhabitants belongs to the same ethnic group; it is theorized that a person is less likely to commit a hate crime against someone who he regards as a neighbor

E. that is, no more than one third of the area’s inhabitants belongs to the same ethnic group; it is theorized that a person is less likely to commit a hate crime against someone whom he regards to be a neighbor
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Expert, please clear the doubt..

No more than one third of area's inhabitant's should use singular or plural verb.

The answer should be B in my opinion. As per my understanding, whenever the subject lies in the 'of' kind of prepositional phrases that express quantity of some kind - some of the stones (stones is the subject), most of the students (students is the subject even though it is a part of prepositional phrase because together the phrase describes quantity), two of the five medals (medals is the subject) - the subject is the noun of the prepositional phrase. This concept is present in the e-GMAT course. Please let me know if the understanding is wrong.

Apart from the issue of S/V agreement (which I assume should be plural and not singular, based on the explanation provided by sayantanc2k, is the usage of 'whom' correct here? When do you use who and when do you use whom? Can anyone explain this?

One of the recent OG questions I’ve just taken states “one third of mothers WERE..” and the explanation stated that plural verb is needed. Really confused with this question(

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ankaua This is why it's better to learn from official questions than from third-party material. "One third of mothers were" makes much more sense than "was," since we would certainly go on to say something about the women as individuals rather than as a group. Imagine if I said "One third of mothers was living in a one-bedroom apartment." It would sound like a large group of women were all living together in a small space!
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Maybe it'd be better to remove this question, or at least put it under "Debatable OA", although I really don't think that this is "debatable". The position the OE takes on belong/belongs is just wrong.

sudarshan22, aragonn, hazelnut, generis
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