None of the typical physical properties, such as color, hardness, and

Hi higuyi,

The rule you found is just one way of looking at none. Unfortunately, there is no consensus to be found here, so I ask my students to delay taking a call on none (and try to work with other splits).
1. Some people think that none of + [plural noun] should be considered singular because "none" ~ "no one".
2. Others think it should be plural because "none" ~ "not any".
3. And... some people think both are fine.

So far as I remember, (1) is the "traditional" view, whereas (2) and (3) are more modern ways of using that structure. For what it's worth, I like (3). However, if a question forced us to choose, I would go singular.

Many thx!

None of the typical physical properties, such as color, hardness, and melting point, of the element Astatine (At) is known because, due to its high radioactivity, it almost immediate decays into something else.

(A) known because, due to its high radioactivity, it almost immediately decays into something else

(B) known due to the fact that it decays almost immediately into something else because of its high radioactivity

(C) known if, because of its high radioactivity, it almost immediately decays into something else

(D) known: because of its high radioactivity, it almost immediately decays into something else

(E) known: due to its high radioactivity, it almost immediately decays into something else


The answer is very simple if we can apply usage of

due to--when the effect is a noun
because/because of-- when the effect is a verb

here effect is---it almost immediately decays into something else which is a 'verb', hence it is clear that we need to use 'because'. Now A, B & C are out due to obvious reasons of awkwardness, lengthy etc. Left are only D & E out of which 'because' is used in option D only. Hence our answer should be D.