OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONProject SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1)
Quote:
One of the most important questions facing the American public in the wake of the global energy crisis is if they can make the transition to hybrid cars to lessen the dependence on foreign oil.
•
one of the most important questions is the subject of the clause
→ some people will say that
one is the subject. Long story. Linguistics battle. (I would say that the subject is "one.")
→ either way, that subject is singular.
Similar and easier to remember:
One of the questions IS difficult.
One of the questions ARE difficult.
•
facing the American public in the wake of the global energy crisis is a long adjective phrase that modifies
questions and that is derived from a relative clause. (From
one of the questions that faces → → one of the questions facing.)
→ In other words, notice that the subject is sort of hidden behind a "participle"(verbING) phrase.
• PUBLIC is a collective noun and is singular.
Speakers of British English, please be careful. In B.E., collective nouns are almost always plural.
In U.S. English and on the GMAT, collective nouns are singular 99 percent of the time.
There are two major exceptions:
people and
police.
Oh, wait, a third: also plural are names of sports teams (which I have
never seen tested).
You will see many posts in which we have qualified this "collective noun" assertion; we say that the collective noun is singular when it acts as unit and plural when its members act individually.
I do not recall having seen an official question in which the members of a collective noun acted individually and thus required a plural verb.
Except for
police and
people, collective nouns are singular.
• IF vs. WHETHER
→ use IF only to describe a conditional or to speculate about something hypothetical
→ use
whether to choose between alternatives, keeping in mind that
whetheroften means
whether or notIf the sentence is
not a conditional or hypothetical, use
whether.
THE OPTIONSQuote:
A) is if they can make the transition
• THEY should be IT
the singular noun
public requires the singular pronoun
it, not
they• IF should be WHETHER
→
Correct: One of the most important questions is
whether [
or not] Americans can adapt to electric cars.
→
or not is implied and conveys the "alternative" or "other" viewpoint
→ IF should signal a condition or a hypothetical and does not do so here.
ELIMINATE A
Quote:
B) are if they can make the transition
•
are should be
is→ the singular subject
one of the most important questions takes the singular verb
is, not
are• THEY should be IT
→ the singular noun
public takes the singular pronoun
it, not
they• IF should be WHETHER (same problem as that in option A)
ELIMINATE B
Quote:
C) is whether they can make the transition
• THEY should be IT
→ the singular noun
public takes the singular pronoun
it, not
theyELIMINATE C
Quote:
D) are whether it can make the transition
• ARE should be IS
→ The singular subject
one of the most important questions requires the singular verb IS, not ARE
ELIMINATE D
Quote:
E) is whether it can make the transition
• All the errors have been corrected
→ Correct: One of the most important questions . . . IS whether XYZ can happen.
→ Correct: The big question is
whether [tacit: or not] the [
singular!] American public can adapt to hybrid cars.
→ Correct: One of the most important questions is whether [the singular public = IT] can adapt to hybrid cars.
The best answer is ECOMMENTSI'll be brief, because TBH, my eyes are shot. Whoops. Vernacular. Let me try again.
My eyes are tired and blurry. The other OE for today will have to wait for a few hours.
I read the answers hours ago, though -- the reasoning is good even if a couple of you relied on the wrong assumption.
This question requires attention to detail; it/they, for example, is tested against two different antecedents.
Nice work.
close
09 Dec 2020, 00:50
45%
(medium)
49%
(00:59)
wrong 
