adkikani , you are correct. "Characteristics" is the object of a preposition. The object of a preposition cannot be the subject of the sentence.

[Disclaimer: although the object of a preposition cannot be the subject of a sentence, in one rare case, a whole noun phrase is the subject, and it includes the object of a preposition: subgroup modifiers such as some of whom, all of which, etc.)

• C is correct because "one of the Xs" is singular, based on the rule below. C's verb, WAS, is singular.

• Summary of the rule
I would memorize this rule . . . or understand why it works. Or both.

When we see one of the Xs, whether it is singular or plural turns on whether the phrase is accompanied by THAT/WHO.

ONE OF THE Xs

ONE OF THE Xs + that/who + VERB = always plural

ONE OF THE Xs + VERB = always singular

Look for the words that or who after "one of the Xs."

If that or who IS present, then one of the Xs is plural.
→ One of the children spends all her money on candy.
If that or who is NOT present, then one of the Xs is singular.
→ She is one of the children who spend all her money on candy.

Explanation of the rule

If we think about it in context, those two rules make sense.
-- In the first case, the person is the only one [of the Xs] who does [singular] Y. Only one X does Y.
-- In the second case, the person is not the only one who does Y.
The person is one of the many Xs who do [plural] Y. Many Xs do Y.

In American football, a quarterback took a knee to protest injustice. Other players and coaches followed. Soon a culture war ensued between Donald Trump and the players who protested or showed solidarity. The NFL banned the practice this year.

Singular - "one of the Xs" VERBS
One of the athletes [Colin Kaepernick] protests injustice by taking a knee.

Meaning: He is the only athlete who chooses "taking a knee" to protest injustice.
-- Other athletes do not protest by "taking a knee."
-- Other athletes protest in different ways. Some of the athletes wear colored ribbons.
Some athletes remain in the locker room until game time.
Other athletes raise clenched fists (and are stripped of gold and silver medals).
-- Only THIS athlete is known to protest in this way.
• In the singular case in which only THE is used (without WHO or THAT), no other Xs do this action.
Only one of the Xs does this action.
(singular) One . . .protests (singular)

• In the plural case with THAT or WHO, there are many Xs who do this action.

Plural - "one of the Xs" that/who VERB

He is one of the athletes WHO protest injustice by taking a knee.

Meaning: There are many athletes who protest by taking a knee.
-- There is a group of athletes who all protest by taking a knee, and he is one of (he is part of) that group.
He is one of many who protest in that way.
(plural) athletes . . . protest

So, adkikani , in correctly deciding that the object of a preposition could not be the subject of the sentence, you got to the correct conclusion: the subject is singular.

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workout , maybe I am missing something you intend, but . . . As you note, the prepositional phrase can affect the subject and hence determine whether the verb should be singular our plural.

I agree that the prepositional phrase modifies the subject -- but the subject in the example used is "some," not "students."

In other words, the object of the preposition (students) is not the subject of the sentence. I think what I see may be a typo.

thangvietnam , E is utter nonsense.
Answer E is indeed missing a "that."
If you read the thread, you will see that others have already discussed other problems with Answer E.
If you have any specific questions about E, please let us know!

*****

adkikani , I hope that helps.
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A. one of the village planning proposal’s best characteristics was their not detracting - Incorrect - Awkward

B. one of the village’s planning proposal’s best characteristics were its not taking - Incorrect - Subject Verb error

C. one of the best characteristics of the village’s planning proposal was that it did not detract - Correct

D. a best characteristic of the village planning proposal was, it did not take - Incorrect - Fragment

E. among the village planning proposal’s best characteristics, one was, it did not detract - Incorrect - Fragment

Answer: C

The phrases one of and one of the take a singular verb, hence (C) is correct...
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B is a mess that you can't even.. smh

(D) a best characteristic of the village planning proposal was, it did not take.

Could anyone tell me whether the answer (D) is grammatically correct?
For me, it looks like two independent clauses without proper conjunction or "that"( ... proposals was that it did not take.)

D has the run on sentence after comma "was, it did not take.". Hence, D is grammatically incorrect.
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Hi sayantanc2k / Experts,

Can Somebody, please explain B/C in meaning?

What is difference between "village’s planning proposal’s best characteristics" & "best characteristics of the village’s planning proposal" ?

Thanks
Nandish
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Hi Nandish,

I don't think that there is any meaning difference between the two. A's best characteristics is same as best characteristics of A.

The interior minister explained that one of the village planning proposal’s best characteristics was their not detracting from the project’s overall benefit by being a burden on the development budget.

Analysis: Looking at the underlined portions of the sentence, we need a "...was that..." so that the description of the characteristic can follow it.

A. one of the village planning proposal’s best characteristics was their not detracting
- Incorrect with pronoun reference and working verb

B. one of the village’s planning proposal’s best characteristics were its not taking
- Same as (A)

C. one of the best characteristics of the village’s planning proposal was that it did not detract
- "it" clearly refers to the characteristics and "did not detract" has the correct form of working verb.

D. a best characteristic of the village planning proposal was, it did not take
- The clause before comma is sentence fragment.
- Also, "a" is not the correct article to reference to the "best characteristics" [Someone correct me if this is a not an issue]

E. among the village planning proposal’s best characteristics, one was, it did not detract
- Again the clause before first comma is a sentence fragment. Also, "one was" is a fragment.

anox wrote


It is certainly an issue. The superlative degree of comparison is a unique and absolute feature and it should be modified by the definite article 'the' in formal written English of GMAT.
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Thanks for the explanation. "a best characteristics" did not sound right to me but could not explain it.

Well, we could say that "A' is awkward; however, writing off an answer choice as awkward may not actually help explain why that particular answer choice is wrong or better yet help to elucidate the sentence's intended meaning. What is incorrect about answer choice "A" is the pairing of "their " with "proposal's." This is grammatically incorrect..."their" must be paired with a plural noun. Concision and logic matter on the GMAT- but this certainly does not mean immediately eliminating the wordiest answer choice or even an answer choice that sounds "awkward." The whole idea of eliminating answer choices on the basis of sounding awkward may be more applicable to questions testing idioms- even then we cannot afford to entirely rely on your ear- this is a very common mistake. There's actually a few idioms that arguably sound awkward and that many native American speakers even get wrong. Many Americans, surprisingly, say " I prefer ___ over___" this is incorrect- it should I prefer x___to___Y. Anyways, I do not mean to dismiss the notion that sentences that inherently sound awkward should not raise skepticism- they should raise a yellow light rather a red light and we should not forget to also use logic and rules.


Thus
"C"

I'm really confused with the Subject and the Verb here. Can someone please help understand?

haritrathi94

Here is how I would break it down:

The interior minister explained

that (presence of that suggests another dependent clause)

one of the best characteristics of the village’s planning proposal was

that

it did not detract from the project’s overall benefit by being a burden on the development budget.

generis GMATNinja KarishmaB workout

I at times falter for 10 s to know verb for phrases such as one of the best characteristics
The reason why need a singular verb was to refer to above complete phrase and not
a plural verb characteristics is that a noun in the prepositional phrase cannot be a subject of the plural verb - were. Am I correct?
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adkikani here is what I think

There are few cases where if the part before the subject modifies the quantity of the subject, then the subject can be in the prepositional phrase.

Example "some of the students got their books" Here "some of the" talks about quantity of students. So, the subject is students and it is plural.

The few exceptions to the above are "one of the", "none of the" and "the number of" which are always singular

"one of the students got his/her book".
"none of the students got his/her book"
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[quote="Gnpth"]The interior minister explained that one of the village planning proposal’s best characteristics was their not detracting from the project’s overall benefit by being a burden on the development budget.

(A) one of the village planning proposal’s best characteristics was their not detracting

(B) one of the village’s planning proposal’s best characteristics were its not taking

(C) one of the best characteristics of the village’s planning proposal was that it did not detract

(D) a best characteristic of the village planning proposal was, it did not take

(E) among the village planning proposal’s best characteristics, one was, it did not detract

in some official answer in og books, "that " can be omitted

the problem is he dose not reply=the problem is that he does not reply

but we can not insert a comma

the problem is, he dose not reply

inserting a comma makes 2 sentences not connected, a run on sentence.

so , choice E and E are wrong

Whether you use singular or plural verb depends on the corresponding subject.

He is one of those kids who live in joint families. ("who live in joint families" modifies "those kids". So we use plural "live". He is one of them)

One of those kids has your jacket. (Who has your jacket? One of the kids, not those kids. You use singular "has")

Some of those kids are my friends. (Who are my friends? Some of those kids. Subject is "some" which is plural so you use "are")

One of those boys who are sitting in the cafeteria is my brother. ("who are sitting in the cafeteria" modifies "those boys" so we use "are". But only one of them is my brother so "is" corresponds to "one")
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The interior minister explained that one of the village planning proposal’s best characteristics was their not detracting from the project’s overall benefit by being a burden on the development budget.

(A) one of the village planning proposal’s best characteristics was their not detracting should be its

(B) one of the village’s planning proposal’s best characteristics were its not taking should be was

(C) one of the best characteristics of the village’s planning proposal was that it did not detract - Correct

(D) a best characteristic of the village planning proposal was, it did not take - should be the best and also the second part an independent sentence is separated just by a comma

(E) among the village planning proposal’s best characteristics, one was, it did not detract - same as D and also changes the meaning.

VeritasKarishma - Could you please check my reasoning?

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Faults in my reasoning or suggestions to further improve it will be rewarded by Kudos!

(A) one of the village planning proposal’s best characteristics was their not detracting

(B) one of the village’s planning proposal’s best characteristics were its not taking

(C) one of the best characteristics of the village’s planning proposal was that it did not detract

(D) a best characteristic of the village planning proposal was, it did not take

(E) among the village planning proposal’s best characteristics, one was, it did not detract