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The lack of complete historical records from the mid-to-late 1800’s ha 02 Nov 2019, 04:16
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D
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15% (low)

Question Stats:

74% (00:45) correct 26% (01:05) wrong based on 306 sessions

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The lack of complete historical records from the mid-to-late 1800’s have made some Black inventions difficult to trace to their originators.

(A) have made some Black inventions difficult to trace to their originators
(B) have made for difficulties in tracing some inventions by Blacks to their originators
(C) have made it difficult to trace some inventions by Blacks to their originators
(D) has made it difficult to trace some inventions to their Black originators
(E) has made it difficult in tracing some Black inventions to their originators
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D
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The lack of complete historical records from the mid-to-late 1800’s ha 02 Nov 2019, 09:03
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Lack is the subject and hence the verb is 'has made'. between the gerund in tracing and the infinitive 'to trace, the infinitive is idiomatic and hence the answer is D.
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The lack of complete historical records from the mid-to-late 1800’s ha 02 Nov 2019, 23:48
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daagh
Lack is the subject and hence the verb is 'has made'. between the gerund in tracing and the infinitive 'to trace, the infinitive is idiomatic and hence the answer is D.
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Hi daagh, I selected 'have' between 'has' and 'have' applying the rule that says that if the prepositional phrase contains a quantity then it becomes the subject E.g. records in this case. Let me know what I am missing out on
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The lack of complete historical records from the mid-to-late 1800’s ha 03 Nov 2019, 01:23
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I am not aware of any such rule as you stated. If a plural object of the preposition follows a singular subject and if a relative pronoun such as 'that' or 'who' is placed after the plural object, then the subject of the following clause is taken to be plural and the verb will be plural.
For that, it is essential to have a pronoun after the plural object of the preposition of the previous clause.
To wit:- see the difference now.
One of the students -- the verb will be -is-.
One of the students who -- the verb will be 'are'.

- Here the verb for the relative clause is plural because who stands for the plural students.

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The lack of complete historical records from the mid-to-late 1800s have made
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This is wrong; there is no intervening relative pronoun after the 1800s. The OA is in line with this theme and confirms the verb is singular.
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The lack of complete historical records from the mid-to-late 1800’s ha 28 Dec 2020, 06:23
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Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

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