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The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental

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noboru
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The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  28 Aug 2010, 09:24
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A
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48% (00:46) correct 52% (00:52) wrong based on 508 sessions
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The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental methods used by investigators in the field.

A) The majority of the talk was
B) The greater part of the talk was
C) The bulk of the talk has been
D) A large amount of the talk has been
E) A predominance of the talk was
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ramana
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  29 Aug 2010, 10:34
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Talk is uncountable noun,

Majority can only be used for countable nouns..as in 'majority of the voters'

B looks good
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  29 Aug 2010, 23:21
I ll go with B....instinctive answer that...Sounded better than A
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  06 Jun 2015, 02:34
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The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental methods used by investigators in the field.

a) The majority of the talk was

b) The greater part of the talk was

c) The bulk of the talk has been

d) A large amount of the talk has been

e) A predominance of the talk was
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  06 Jun 2015, 03:58
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Answer should be B.
The word "Majority" shows numbers (plural), so it should be used with plural countable nouns. So, A is out.
B -CORRECT.
C and D "has been" is not required.
E- "Predominance of the talk" - No clear meaning.
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NiruSinghal
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  22 Mar 2018, 23:02
aniteshgmat1101 wrote:
Answer should be B.
The word "Majority" shows numbers (plural), so it should be used with plural countable nouns. So, A is out.
B -CORRECT.
C and D "has been" is not required.
E- "Predominance of the talk" - No clear meaning.



Majority can be both singular and plural.

Can someone provide another reason why B is the correct answer?
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  23 Mar 2018, 00:52
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NiruSinghal wrote:
Majority can be both singular and plural.

Can someone provide another reason why B is the correct answer?

Hi Niru, the structure is majority of X.

- If X is plural, then majority of X is considered plural

- If X is singular, then majority of X is considered singular
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  23 Mar 2018, 00:57
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NiruSinghal wrote:
Majority can be both singular and plural.

Can someone provide another reason why B is the correct answer?


Hey NiruSinghal ,

“Majority” should be used only with countable nouns: “he ate the majority of the cookies,” but not “he ate the majority of the pie.” Instead say, “he ate most of the pie.”

The majority is followed by a singular verb while a majority is followed by a plural verb. This is similar to "The number" vs "A number".

Both mean "most", but the usage differs slightly. "The majority of" has a massed collective sense, while "a majority of" idiomatically suggests a collection of individuals.

Now option A is talking about "Talk", which isn't a countable noun, hence is incorrect.

Does that make sense?
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  23 Mar 2018, 01:22
Hello Abhimahna,

Here 'majority' means 'most' and as per SANAM rule option A sounds good.
Pls explain
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  23 Mar 2018, 01:25
EducationAisle wrote:
NiruSinghal wrote:
Majority can be both singular and plural.

Can someone provide another reason why B is the correct answer?

Hi Niru, the structure is majority of X.

- If X is plural, then majority of X is considered plural

- If X is singular, then majority of X is considered singular

Gmat Club has a similar question here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-majority ... 57758.html

It is stated there that majority is always a singular noun, independent from whether the word behind the "of" is singular or plural.
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  23 Mar 2018, 04:13
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Masterscorp wrote:
Gmat Club has a similar question here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-majority ... 57758.html

It is stated there that majority is always a singular noun, independent from whether the word behind the "of" is singular or plural.

Hi Masterscorp, your impression that majority is always singular noun, is incorrect.

In fact, majority is generally plural (because X in majority of X is generally plural),

Referring to unofficial questions to form concepts, is not a good practice for preparation.
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  17 Jun 2018, 00:32
Can someone please tell me why A is incorrect?

Majority can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns. Ex. The majority of the population was happy with the ruling party. The majority of citizens were happy with the ruling party.
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  17 Jun 2018, 00:51
GittinGud wrote:
Can someone please tell me why A is incorrect?

Majority can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns. Ex. The majority of the population was happy with the ruling party. The majority of citizens were happy with the ruling party.
Although I am not 100% sure, but this what I feel -
Population also is measured by a figure like 2 million, etc. So, there is a countable quantity. However, this is not in the case of talk. You cannot measure it in numbers( tens, hundreds, thousands millions or billions, etc.).

Hope this helps.

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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  09 Apr 2021, 10:19
I couldn't find any helpful explanation for this question, can you please explain why A is incorrect? Thank you.
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  09 Apr 2021, 10:25
GMATNinja Can you please explain why A is incorrect? I chose A because I thought 'The majority' is like 'The number' so the singular verb 'was' is correct.
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Re: The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental [#permalink] New post  01 Dec 2022, 13:03
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