A risk corridor is one of the main provisions, albeit not the only one

A risk corridor is one of the main provisions, albeit not the only one, that protects the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like it did earlier in the decade.

"that" modifies "provisions",so we need a plural verb; therefore, "protect" is correct instead of "protects".

A. protects the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like it did -Protects --> wrong; like --> wrong
B. protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, as it did - Correct
C. protects the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, as it did - Protects --> wrong
D. protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like - like --> wrong
E. protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like they did -like --> wrong

IMO B

A -- Verb agreement issue and usage of like
C--Verb agreement issue
D-- Usage of like
E-- Usage of like and pronoun issue.

Hi,

I was told from egmat that "one of the [PLURAL]" would be shown as singular and not plural.

I'm a bit confused now?

@chetan2u-I understand what you are saying, but how do we account for 'albeit the only one'? This comes before 'that'. Also, use of that should be without commas since it is an essential modifier. I think this is a poor quality question.

Hi KS15
Here 'albeit not the only one' acts as a noun-modifier. When 'that' is preceded by a comma pair with noun modifier, it is acceptable.
Please refer the below blog from E-gmat:
https://e-gmat.com/blog/gmat-verbal/sen ... -questions

"One of the APPLES has been....." is correct usage
But one of the apples THAT, then the following verb needs to be plural, not singular.

I hope it helps!

[one of the X(plural)] this is will take singular verb.
but
one of the X(plural) that ... will take plural verb

A. protects the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like it did WRONG
B. protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, as it did
C. protects the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, as it did WRONG
D. protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like WRONG
E. protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like they did WRONG

like [noun]
as [phrase]

One of the apples that are red is rotten.

A risk corridor is one of the main provisions, albeit not the only one, that protects the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like it did earlier in the decade.

A. protects the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like it did
B. protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, as it did
C. protects the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, as it did
D. protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like
E. protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, like they did

You can see the following OG question and understand the question on hand better.

A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.

A) keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did
B) keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did
C) keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did
D) keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, like earlier
E) keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier

Answer B

This question demonstrates a nice trap by introducing descriptive phrase in between "...one of the PLURAL..." and "that ..."

I was confused too but later on I realized it works this way-

Structure 1 - One of the 'Noun' (in plural form) + that/who - THEN USE PLURAL VERB
Structure 2 - One of the 'Noun' - THEN USE SINGULAR VERB [no that/who is present in this case]

Thanks
Sort of my trick for the game.

CRACK VERBAL OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The subject ‘provisions’ is plural and must be coupled with a plural verb ‘protect’, not singular ‘protects’. Therefore, options A and C are out. Option D – the phrase ‘like earlier in the decade’ doesn’t clarify what happened earlier in the decade – the comparison is ambiguous. Option E – the plural pronoun ‘they’ is incorrectly used to refer to the singular noun ‘insurance industry’ which is incorrect. Thus B is the right answer.

In my opinion this question is very ambiguouse. The answer choices give as/like "it did" or "they did". "it did" in answer choice B is supposed to mean that the insurance industry (it) hit rock bottom earlier in the decade.

BUT (imo) if you do not know that B is correct it seems to be more logical that the sentence would try to say the following: "A risk corridor is one of the main provisions,..., that protect the insurance industry from hitting rock bottom, as they did earlier in the decade." The beginning of the sentence explains the provision and how they can protect the industry from hitting rock bottom, therefore it would only seem logical that "they did" should mean as "the provision (they) protected (did)".

(I understand that I am wrong because "as they did" is no option, however I find it frustrating that the question from the meaning is ambiguouse. Only because the option "as they did" is not given did I become aware that "they/it did" was not supposed to mean protect from hitting rock bottom, but instead that the industry actually DID hit rock bottom earlier in the decade.)

Leaving this here in hope that it helps someone who is confused about the usage of singular or plural in these types of sentences.

This sentence is correct - one of the books LOOKS old
This sentence is correct - one of the books that LOOK old IS torn

If we have a THAT, then we are, for a moment, referring to the group only. but later we again move to the primary subject (one book).

So if we have THAT, use immediate verb as plural, otherwise use it singular.

Hope it helps.

what 'it' refers to here ? 'risk corridor' or 'provisions'
if B is correct option then it must refer to provisions.
please help

Hello 8427791377,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here, "it" actually refers to the noun "insurance industry".

We hope this helps.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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