Prepositional Phrases Clarified

After going through several sources, I made some points that I would like to share with everyone.
First of all, before even advancing, I shall ask a question.
His collections of music IS/ARE good.
What is correct here?

Before advancing further, the keything to understand is:

1)As an adverb, a prepositional phrase will answer questions such as How? When? or Where?
i)Freddy is stiff from yesterday's long football practice.

How did Freddy get stiff? From yesterday's long football practice!

ii)Before class, Josh begged his friends for a pencil.

When did Josh do his begging? Before class!

2)As an adjective, the prepositional phrase will answer the question Which one?

Read these examples:

1)The book on the bathroom floor is swollen from shower steam.

Which book? The one on the bathroom floor!

2)The sweet potatoes in the vegetable bin are green with mold.

Which sweet potatoes? The ones forgotten in the vegetable bin!

Now here is the trick.

Subject never resides in prepositional phrase, EXCEPT when quantity is expressed.

In the clauses where quantity words are used, WHICH or other relative pronouns will NOT JUMP otherwise it will have to jump.Consider an example:
The box of nails, which is black in color, is kept on the table.
Here the prepositional phrase is "of nails". But it can't be the subject because we have not used any quantity word here.
Now consider this:
Some of the stones, which were thrown by Sam in Thames, were round in shape.
Here the prepositional phrase is "of the stones" but since SOME is a quantity word here, hence subject is "stones" not "some of the stones".

More example to clear the doubt. (The subject is green in color.)
1) Seven of the eleven medals, which were all gold, were won by Jamaican sprinters.
2) Most of the bananas have been bought from the nearby market.
3) A number of supporters of the the campaign have extended their support for Democratic Party.
4) THE number of birds migrating to the Marina Beach is increasing year by year.

So remember one thing, if any quantity word precedes the prepositional phrase, then your subject will reside in the prepositional phrase.
By the way, the answer to the question at the top is "ARE".

Source: MGMAT, e-GMAT and Jamboree
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I assume you are asking the topmost question. If yes, then the source is GMAT Prep Quuestion Pack 1.
The text was actually a part of the question.
Hope that helps.
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Well just wanted to add few lines to your above post:-- prepositional clauses contain a preposition and their object and can modify a noun[As an adjective, the prepositional phrase will answer the question Which one?] or a verb [As an adverb, a prepositional phrase will answer questions such as How? When? or Where?]
--A easy way to remember this would be that if QUANTITY words --some,many,none, a number , the number ,etc are present followed by a prepositional clause then the Main verb should agree with the Quantity word



Are you sure that which cannot jump due to the presence of quantity words?

because I had read :
nouns that are modified by prepositional phrases can still be the referent of 'which' even if they are a few words distant from it.
This usually happens when the immediately preceding noun is grammatically incompatible with the verb after "which".
For example: "The picture of my brothers, which was taken last year in Mexico, is one of my favorites."
You might object to this sentence on the grounds that 'which' might be taken to modify 'brothers'. And, in a strict sort of way, you'd be right. But here's the catch: There's really no other reasonable way to write this sentence. You just can't get 'picture' next to the 'which' clause without creating total nonsense, or splitting the sentence into 2 smaller sentences
plus, 'brothers' is plural, and is incompatible with 'which WAS'.
This is an interesting point, though, and subtle at that.---Ron mgmt



well I think 'some' is part of the SANAM pronoun group hence there has to be a agreement b/w subject of prepositional phrase and main verb.
not because the subject changes from 'some of stones' to 'some'

please explain. thnks

Hii dentobizz.
Thats what I intend to say. The relative pronouns such as "which" will jump over the subject of the prepositional phrase, given the fact that no quantity word is used.
Consider the example given by you:
"The pictures of my brothers, which was taken last year in Mexico, is one of my favourites."
In the example, which cannot modify "brothers" because of two reasons. They are:
i) There is no quantity word here, hence the subject cannot reside in the prepositional phrase.
ii) Relative pronoun "which" cannot modify persons; it is against the rules.

Every rule in SC is governed by some logic. Once you know the concept, the rules become a child's play.
Let me know if anything remains unclear.
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Hii Skamal.
Good question.
Actually thats why I wrote the "THE" with caps lock on. See the difference between "the number of" vs "a number of" is the usage of different articles.
In "the number of", we are actually talking about the particular number-the numeric one. So it is singular. Whereas, in "a number of" thats not the same. Quoting MGMAT SC, "a number of is an idiomatic expression. In modern English, it has become equivalent to SOME or MANY."
THE number of birds migrating to the Marina Beach is increasing year by year.
In this example, "the number" is actually a number so its not a quantity word and hence the subject will remain "the number" and the verb has to be singular.
Hope that helps.
let me know if anything remains unclear.
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Hii Kamal.
In this question, which doesn't attacks the prepositional phrase. The concept highlighted in this text works only when GMAT gives you some prepositional phrase.
Now coming to this question, you have to understand the meaning first.
Let us distribute the question in clauses.
i) Scientists are recognizing that lying often facilitates social interactions.
ii) Also they are seeking to determine, when lying becomes destructive and which are the mental problems lying signal.

Once you distribute the sentence into clauses, half the job is done.
Since marker "and" is used, therefore the phrases on both sides of "and" have to be parallel: when lying becomes destructive and what are the mental problems that it signals.

If you are confused with "social interactions", then no problem. There is a counter to the thinking. One thing you have to keep in mind is that GMAT hates ambiguity. Hence, in the answer choices "they" can refer to either "scientists" or "social interactions". Hence the answer choices that use "they" here cannot be correct.

Hope that helps.
Let me know if anything remains unclear.
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I can't see any increment in my # of kudos. Are you?

Now to your question about the usage of which.
Consider a situation in which we both are talking to each other.
Kamal: So Marcab, how is the preparation going for the GMAT?
Marcab: Kamal! I am really worried how to get 100% efficiency in Rc section and how to speed up.

In the above context, did you notice the tone pertaining to how?
This is what the original question raises.
Also, regarding which, keep one thing in mind:
i) of which, in which, about which...etc are correct usages of which.
ii) when which is preceded by a noun, then there must be a "comma" between which and noun.
iii) as in the example above, "which" pertains to the tone. Notice carefully, "which" doesn't modifies anything.

Let me know if anything remains unclear. I will be glad to help.
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If you go by meaning....you can develop programs not range -- logically
so it should use have...

In fact the OA is D!!!

But I think BangOn also has a point here... Dilemma personified!!!

Sorry about this. This should be the fifth, before I can post a real content