Not one of the potential investors is expected to make an offer to buy

A and C and E all have one more porblem deal were concluded deal is singular therefor it has to deal was concluded...leaving behing D and B. the question now is, is the not of the investors is it plural or singular. I think the subject here is singular therefor B is correct

B correct choice...whats the OA

A is fine..


A. is expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merge agreement is signed that includes a provision for penalties if the deal were

- Just fine..

B. is expected to make an offer for buying First Interstate Bank until they sign a merge agreement including a provision for penalties if the deal was
- who is they here...moreover we need subjunctive usage after IF...
offer for buying is unidiomatic usage,,, Offer to by should be used..

C. is expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merge agreement be signed by them with a provision for penalties if the deal were
- wrong usage of THEM, no referent....


D and E are out because of subject verb agreement.

A is fine actually. All the others have flaws

B is out, because they has no clear referrent
C is out, because them has no clear referrent
D and E are out, because not one of the investors, should be followed by "is" and not "are"

Thanks,
Darth

Agree with A that it is the least harmful.

but is "that" in A has clear referent. "that" in A is after signed. if so, doesnot it modify signed rather a merge agreement.

I narrowed down to A and C - choose A.
1. "not one" is singular, hence we need "is"
2. We need "if...were" construction to account for an unlikely scenario
3. Ideally "that" needs to come right after "agreement", but I think if it is unambiguous, you can have it after the complement. The problem is that if you want to put "that" clause right after "agreement", you need to shift "is signed" to the end; however, in the clearest sentences the author makes every effort to write subject and verb as early in the sentence as possible.

But how "a merger agreement is signed that includes" is grammatically correct?

Sorry for opening an old post, just a silly question I have.
In the original sentence, if "not one" was replaced by "none", would it require "are" instead of "is"

"Not one of the potential investors is" vs. "None of the potential investors are"

Thanks.

First split, since the deal’s conclusion is hypothetical, the conditional closes has to use the past subjunctive verb ‘were ‘. B and D are out.

The use of present subjunctive verb ‘be signed’ is wrong since no command or order is involved.

There is SV mismatch in E.

So A is left with correct past subjunctive verb, proper SV agreement and no problematic pronouns.

until a merger agreement is signed that includes a provision for penalties if the
deal were not to be concluded.

The above part of the text is actually a poetic expression meant to confuse the test takers. If you flip the clause, the classic version of the same will be:

Until a merger agreement that includes a provision for penalties if the
deal were not to be concluded, is signed


The relative clause introduced by the relative pronoun ‘that’ is an essential definer of the agreement. Per se, therefore, there is no grammar error in that expression

Is the "be signed" part correct in option "c". Is it part of a subjunctive form ?

Posted from my mobile device

hi there,

Use of "be signed" is not correct here because this verb appears in its subjunctive verb form without there being any verb in the sentence that requires the use of subjunctive. There a few words that require the use of subjunctive, such as demand, recommend, suggect, etc. Since this senetnce carries no such verb with which use of subjunctive is imperative, use of "be signed" is incorrect in choice C.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Not one of the potential investors is expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merger agreement is signed that includes a provision for penalties if the deal were not to be concluded.

If you go by meaning then absolutely 'that' refers to 'merger agreement'.

Even if you don't want to go by meaning but by structure.

Then yes the noun modifier can jump to modify far away noun if the critical predicate falls between.

Critical predicate=is signed
Subject=agreement
Modifier=that...

Hope that helps!

Can "not one" be considered as "none"? In that case, the sentence should have read as None of the investors ARE expected.... Please advise.

Actually there indeed is some debate on whether none should be singular or plural. There are a couple of sentences in OG-13, indicating that GMAT considers none as singular:

#5: ..... perhaps none was more concentrated than...

#27: None of the attempts to specify the causes of crime explains.....

However, I have yet to come across a question, which actually expects test takers to choose between singular and plural verb (with the usage of none). Perhaps GMAT wants to stay clear of this topic, since there seems to be no absolute consensus among grammarians on this subject.

Not one of the potential investors is expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merger agreement is signed that includes a provision for penalties if the deal were not to be concluded.

A. is expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merger agreement is signed that includes a provision for penalties if the deal were
Correct.

B. is expected to make an offer for buying First Interstate Bank until they sign a merger agreement including a provision for penalties if the deal was
Wrong.
- "they" does not agree with "not one" that is singular.
- "was" is wrong because the question uses untrue if-then clause --> "were" is correct, not "was".

C. is expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merger agreement be signed by them with a provision for penalties if the deal were
Wrong.
- "them" is wrong because it refers to "investors". That makes no sense. The agreement should be signed by a board of directors, NOT by potential investors.

D. are expected to make an offer for buying First Interstate Bank until it signs a merger agreement with a provision for penalties included if the deal was
Wrong.
- S-V agreement.
- "was" is wrong (explained in B)

E. are expected to be making an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until they sign a merger agreement including a provision for penalties if the deal were
Wrong.
- S-V agreement.
- "they" does not agree with "not one" that is singular.

Regards,

"one" is the subject, hence needs the singular "is". D and E out.

"offer for" is incorrect idiom. B out.

Subjunctive is used whenever there is a command verb such as "demand" etc. We do not have any command word here and hence the use of command subjunctive is incorrect in C.

Answer: A

Not one of the potential investors is expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merger
agreement is signed that includes a provision for penalties if the deal were not to be concluded.

A. is expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merger agreement is signed that includes a
provision for penalties if the deal were
B. is expected to make an offer for buying First Interstate Bank until they sign a merger agreement including a
provision for penalties if the deal was
C. is expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merger agreement be signed by them with a
provision for penalties if the deal were
D. are expected to make an offer for buying First Interstate Bank until it signs a merger agreement with a provision
for penalties included if the deal was
E. are expected to be making an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until they sign a merger agreement including a
provision for penalties if the deal were

F. Not one of the potential investors are expected to make an offer to buy First Interstate Bank until a merger agreement is signed that includes a provision for penalties if the deal were

My Question is -

Is the answer choice F correct too?

What is the difference in meaning between sentence A and sentence F ?