The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous d

Question

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous debate to this day; historians have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and widespread immorality.

(A) have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and

(B) attribute it variously to causes that include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, or

(C) have variously attributed them to causes which include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and

(D) attribute them to various causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, as well as

(E) variously attribute them to causes including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and

nikhilsamuel89 · Accepted Answer

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous debate to this day; historians have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and widespread immorality.

The decline and fall of the Roman empire  is a noun phrase(one big noun). It is a singular subject. Hence, in the  attributed X to ...X should be singular since it refers to a singular subject. C,D,E out.
Between A and B, the  variously  in B changes the meaning of the sentence.
Hence, A is the correct answer.

Hope it helps.

A. have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and
B. attribute it variously to causes that include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, or
C. have variously attributed them to causes which include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and
D. attribute them to various causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, as well as
E. variously attribute them to causes including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and

rajeevrks27 · Answer

C, D n E WRONG PRONOUN
B MAIN VERB MISSING, AWKWARD FRAGMENT SENTENCE 
so A is the winner.

hurdle7 · Answer

I agree that A is correct, but just had a question about D..Manhattan GMAT says use of "as well as" instead of "and" in such a sentence is incorrect:

" In addition, X, Y, as well as Z is not a valid way to write a list of three things; in such a list, "and" is required."

I wonder why? I thought "as well as" could replace "and" in such constructions..no?

crick20002002 · Answer

"as well as " essentially means "in addition/also". When you have list of two items "as well as" can be considered appropriate.

But when you have a list of three or more items, the presence of comma already signifies the multiplicity and hence we need an "and" rather than "as well as".

Crick

mourinhogmat1 · Answer

them rules out C, D, and E.

A. have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and
B. attribute it variously to causes that include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, or

Between A and B, I think there is a wrong tense usage. Attribute vs. Attributed. The correct tense is Attributed because we are using the perfect tense with the helping verb "have". Hence, answer is A.

rammuaddib · Answer

I agree with all of the reasons stated above for choices B-E. Now, doesn't A suffer from a grammatical error too? -

What does the "it" refer to - the vigorous debate, the topic of vigorous debate or the decline and fall? In other circumstances I would probably have rejected option A on that ground. Any ideas?

restore · Answer

I chose A.

The "it" has a clear antecedent, which is the "decline and fall." It is a singular noun phrase.

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alchemist009 · Answer

i pick A here. the Roman Empire is singular so pronoun referent must be singular, so C , D and E are out. in B, "attributed it variously to causes" seems awkward. please correct me if my thought process is wrong

regards

Turkish · Answer

I got it wrong first thinking " decline and fall of the Roman Empire" needs them and not it. Then I realized " remains a topic of " . here remains makes it singular. Just like Chips and Burger  IS  a high caloric  snack .

mvictor · Answer

A. have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and 
"debate to this day" in the first clause clearly is hinting us to use present perfect. the entities of the list are parallel and properly connected.
pronoun IT refers to the decline and fall.

B. attribute it variously to causes that include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, or 
does not use present perfect
"or" does not properly connect the entities of the list
attribute variously changes the meaning

C. have variously attributed them to causes which include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and 
variously attributed changes the meaning
them does not have an antecedent

D. attribute them to various causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, as well as 
as well as is not the proper connector
present perfect is needed.

E. variously attribute them to causes including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and 
variously attribute changes the meaning
them does not have an antecedent
present perfect is needed.

Skywalker18 · Answer

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous debate to this day; historians have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and widespread immorality.

(A) have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and - Correct

(B) attribute it variously to causes that include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, or - tense issue- we need present perfect; incorrect usage of variously(adverb) ; usage of 'or' is incorrect

(C) have variously attributed them to causes which include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and - them can't refer to the singular phrase 'The decline and fall of the Roman Empire' ; which needs to be preceded by a comma ; incorrect usage of variously

(D) attribute them to various causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, as well as - them can't refer to the singular phrase 'The decline and fall of the Roman Empire' ; tense issue - same as B ; as well usage

(E) variously attribute them to causes including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and - them can't refer to the singular phrase 'The decline and fall of the Roman Empire' ; incorrect usage of variously ; tense issue- we need present perfect

Answer A

The below is a part of the non-underlined portion of the sentence and thus is not a decision point in this question

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous debate to this day -- Generally, a compound subject 'X and Y' is plural but here it is considered singular.

I googled compound subject singular verb and came across the following - https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/educa ... d-subjects

As Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage explains, “When the nouns form ‘a collective idea’ or ‘a oneness of idea,’ the singular verb is appropriate”

1.Peanut butter and jelly is available in the cafeteria.
Meat and potatoes was my grandfather’s favorite meal
Spaghetti and meatballs goes well with garlic bread.

2. A few contentious examples are listed
His humility and his decency reflects the very best of the American spirit

Or should it be “reflect,” a plural verb? We need to assess whether “his humility and his decency” are two variations on a theme and therefore one thing, or if these two personal qualities are “different and separable.” They seem like separate ideas to me. A person could be decent but not so humble.

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyMurray , DmitryFarber , daagh , generis , other experts - determining whether the nouns connected by AND forms 'a collective idea' seems a little tricky to me. Please enlighten

GMATGuruNY · Answer

The GMAT will not test this issue.
A compound subject is composed of two nouns connected by  and :
NOUN and NOUN.
If a compound subject on the GMAT is to be considered singular, some aspect of the sentence will make the intention crystal clear.
An excerpt from the non-underlined portion of SC82 in the OG12:
 Owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults. 
Here, the usage of  is  (singular) makes it crystal clear that  owning and living  -- a compound subject -- is to be considered singular.

rocky620 · Answer

Is the present perfect in this sentence really required or even the present tense attribute will do?
As I gather that, since the debate is still on, the attribution should be in present.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous d

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The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous d

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