Speakers at the rally, one who is quadriplegic, will try to persuade

Question

Speakers at the rally,  one who  is quadriplegic, will try to persuade the government to allow stem cell research by highlighting the plight of spinal cord victims.

A. one who
B. one of them who
C. and one of them who
D. one of whom
E. one of which

gamelord · Answer

A. one who -> wrong relative structured
B.One of them who -> following verb should be in plural form
C.and one of them who -> "and" is wrong 
D.one of whom -> Correct
E.one of which -> which is not used to refer to human

getgyan · Answer

+1 D speakers - plural ; one who-singular, eliminate A them is not (as far as I know) used in relative clause, eliminate B and C which cannot refer to people, eliminate E :-D

Maryam787 · Answer

speakers comes under the category of object in the given sentence,,,,One is used as subject,,,so whom is used with objects so,,,one of whom would be used
do let me know if the logic behind my explanation for the correct question is true....

mohan514 · Answer

speakers as a whole are subject and one specific person about WHOME the author speaks is object i suppose..

DmitryFarber · Answer

Since the main subject-verb pair is "Speakers will," the part we're dealing with is just a modifier. If we simply say "one who" or "one of them who," we are adding a new subject in a list. We'd be starting to say that several people/groups will try to persuade the government: 1) speakers, 2) "one," and 3) ?? (the list doesn't continue).

For that reason, only D and E work at all, since "one of whom" and "one of which" serve as ways of modifying a portion of a collective noun. For a person, we want "whom" rather than "which," so we're done.

rajatkataria14@gmail.com · Answer

Hii Dmitry Farber,
I am still not able to get your point. I have eliminated C and E. But not able to get the modification error in A and B?

Rocket7 · Answer

Also asking for a clarification:

In option A: the word who is modifying the word "one". the problem is who can be used to refer to a subject and whom is used to refer to an object. Here the word one is referring to speakers thus we need to use whom instead of who? am I right? 
In option B: Them is referring to speakers and who is referring to them. Since who is singular and therefore the use of the verb "is" with who is correct. However, As  DmitryFarber  mentioned in his post that the intention is not to say that speakers along with someone else will try to persuade govt rather it's only the speakers and we are trying to mention about one person out of these speakers.

Any input is appreciated. thanks

DmitryFarber · Answer

Rocket7 Careful, there are problems with both of those first two points. First, while it's true that "who" refers to a subject rather than an object, this rule applies to the position the word appears in, not the word it refers back to. For instance, we say "Who were the investors?" since "who" is directly serving as the subject. But if the sentence is "The investors are flying in for a tour" and we add a modifier, such as "one of whom lives in Brazil," we don't necessarily have to use "who," because the word is not serving as the subject in the sentence. What "one of whom" means is that of the group of people, one has the trait we're about to describe. It is not serving as the subject for a verb, so "who" is not appropriate. We would also say "One of them is visiting," not "One of they is visiting." Again, "they" is the correct subject pronoun, but the subject here is "one," not "they/them."

Second, "who" is not singular. It can be either singular or plural, depending on the intended meaning. We say both "Who is the leader?" and "Who are the winners?"

Second, "who" is not singular. It can be either singular or plural, depending on the intended meaning. We say both "Who is the leader?" and "Who are the winners?"

DmitryFarber · Answer

rajatkataria14@gmail.com  My point is that "one of whom" is a specific phrase that can serve as a modifier. In that case, "one" isn't serving as a subject. It's just a phrase meaning that of this group, one has a particular trait. When we say "one who" or "one of them who," we are introducing a new subject--one--that would then need to be part of a list, just as if I said "Two senators, one of the ambassadors to Egypt, and three business leaders were all at the event."

suyogptl22 · Answer

Can someone please explain the answer for this in detail ? I am still not able to understand why 'whom' is required for the 'Speakers'

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  suyogptl22 ,  which  is used for  non-persons ; if the intent is to refer to a  person  ("speakers" here), then  whom  is indeed the correct pronoun to use.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  this aspect of “Relative Pronouns” . Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  suyogptl22 ,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

"Speakers" are human beings, meaning they cannot be referred to with "which", as "which" is only used to refer to non-human entities. Moreover, between "who" and "whom", we must use "whom" because the referent is "one", which is an object in this sentence; please remember, "who" is used to refer to the subjects of a sentence, and "whom" is used to refer to "objects" of a sentence.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Dhwanii · Answer

DmitryFarber , 
Whenever we come across who vs whom then should we determine based on their respective position or on what it refers back to, here Speakers is the subject but one of .. refers back to the speakers (subject), one of .. belongs to a group that is subject hence I chose who. What are the rules for who vs whom

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Dhwanii ,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through your query and the question, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

In this sentence, "one of whom" does not exactly refer back to "Speakers". Rather, "one of whom" is a modifier that acts upon "Speakers"; this means that "one" is not the subject of the sentence, and must be referred to with "whom".

To understand the concept of "Who" vs "Whom" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfH46QeqFME

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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Speakers at the rally, one who is quadriplegic, will try to persuade

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