Just how much the prime minister's scandal has affected

Question

Just how much the prime minister's scandal has affected the trust of her constituents and the results of the election next fall had been among the most pressing questions facing the country and Europe as a whole.

had been among the most
are among the more
is among the most
were among the more
are among the most

A) had been among the most
 B) are among the more
 C) is among the most
 D) were among the more
 E) are among the most

Hello Gmatclub members, based on input from  VeritasPrepKarishma  this question has been updated.
Official answer given at the bottom.

Thanks

pranjal123 · Accepted Answer

This question tests the concept of The Substantive clause and Substantive clause is singular hence C

You may check below link for more details:

https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/substantive-clauses-on-the-gmat/

Thanks.

Please +1 Kudos if this post helps

manishtank1988 · Answer

I choose E as the answer but the Veritas answer is C.

Official Veritas Explanation: 
This subject-verb agreement problem features two common testmaker devices:

1) Placing several nouns between the subject and the verb

2) Using a hard-to-personify subject (in this case "Just how much..." referring to the extent to which the prime minister's scandal has affected people) as the subject of a sentence, far away from the verb

Notice that the constituents, the trust, and the election (three of the nouns between the subject and verb) are illogical as "pressing questions." So those can quickly be eliminated as potential subjects just for logic's sake. And then grammatically, "the results of the election" is a noun phrase parallel to "the trust of her constituents," which you can see is part of the object of "has affected."

The subject of the underlined verb is "Just how much," a singular subject, so you need a singular verb. Then the combination of the timeline (this situation is ongoing, as evidenced by "has affected" and "next fall") and the need for "most pressing" should lead you to the correct answer, answer choice C.

I am not completely satisfied with this explanation. I thought that when two entities are connected by    and    the verb should be plural - are but how can "Just how much" be the subject?
Experts please clarify.
Thanks

manishtank1988 · Answer

I am not completely satisfied with this explanation. I thought that when two entities are connected by and the verb should be plural - are but how can "Just how much" be the subject?

skgmatclub2016 · Answer

can someone explain why the singular verb is used in the Official Answer C ?

sobby · Answer

This is nice one .. i too fell for E..But it have to be c ..
My reasoning:
Consider this smaller versions:
""'Just how much the prime minister's scandal has affected X and Y""' is among........
  how much has effected something  is among blah blah ...

so we need singular verb for this ....

RMD007 · Answer

We need singular verb here.

Meaning of the sentence is -

1. Prime minister's scandal has affected trust of her constituents and upcoming elections in next fall.
2. By how much it has affected is among the most pressing questions.

The question   is among the most pressing questions. Hence singular verb.

Hope it helps.

reena.phogat · Answer

But "most pressing questions " is written means there are more than 1 pressing question. So verb should be plural

Sent from my XT1068 using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

RMD007 · Answer

Yes there are many pressing questions but, this question (how much it has affected) IS among the most pressing questions. 
Consider like a venn diagram, 
1. There are many questions in a set. 
2. In that set, there are some questions which are most pressing questions.
3. This question IS among the most pressing questions.

We are saying that this question belongs to the category of most pressing questions.

Helps?

sayantanc2k · Answer

There are two questions that constitute the subject of the main clause of this sentence.
1. Just how much the prime minister's scandal has affected the trust of her constituents (X)
2. the results of the election next fall (Y)

These two questions (X AND Y) ARE among the most pressing questions.

Since the subject is plural (X AND Y), the verb must also be plural. Thus "is" in option C is wrong - OA has been changed to E.

Note: In perspective of parallelsim, X AND Y do not match with each other - a clause (X) is wrongly matched with a noun phrase (Y). Corrected this error as well.

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL SOLUTION

This subject-verb agreement problem features two common testmaker devices:

1) Placing several nouns between the subject and the verb
2) Using a hard-to-personify subject (in this case " Just how much... " referring to the extent to which the prime minister's scandal has affected people) as the subject of a sentence, far away from the verb

Notice that the constituents, the trust, and the world leaders (three of the nouns between the subject and verb) are illogical as "pressing questions." So those can quickly be eliminated as potential subjects just for logic's sake. And then grammatically, "the opinions of fellow world leaders" is a noun phrase parallel to "the trust of her constituents," which you can see is part of the object of " has affected ."

The subject of the underlined verb is " Just how much ," a  singular subject , so you need a singular verb. Then the combination of the timeline (this situation is ongoing, as evidenced by " has affected " and " next fall ") and the need for " most pressing " should lead you to the correct answer, answer choice  C .

Dear  sayantanc2k ,  VeritasPrepKarishma , The official answer is  C  and  not E .

Shiv2016 · Answer

Hello experts
Is the answer C or E?

I marked E.

mrdlee23 · Answer

Can you please verify if the correct answer is C or E? A lot of the Veritas Prep verbal questions seem to be up for debate.

manishtank1988 · Answer

mikemcgarry ,  souvik101990 ,  VeritasPrepKarishma ,  Divyadisha 
Can you please comment?

KarishmaB · Answer

I will get back to you on this soon.

manishtank1988 · Answer

Thanks  VeritasPrepKarishma

KarishmaB · Answer

Our goal with hard problems is to get really close to that line of "clever wrong answer" vs. "kind of defensible right answer" - if we stay way too far from the line, everything is just easy and we don't help the 700+ potential folks prepare for what they'll see on the test. We found such a construction in NY Times and thought/hoped that "results of elections" would be subordinate to "the prime minister's scandal". But within days of releasing it in our Experimental pool, we realized that we may have been stepping on that line so we changed the "results of the election" to:

Just how much the prime minister's scandal has affected the trust of her constituents and  the opinions of fellow world leaders​

Unfortunately, the question appears here in its original form. 
With the changed sentence, the answer remains (C).

manishtank1988 · Answer

OFFICIAL UPDATE   
Just how much the prime minister's scandal has affected the trust of her constituents and the opinions of fellow world leaders​
  had been among the most   pressing questions facing the country and Europe as a whole.
A)had been among the most
B)are among the more
C)is among the most
D)were among the more
E)are among the most

This subject-verb agreement problem features two common testmaker devices:
1) Placing several nouns between the subject and the verb
2) Using a hard-to-personify subject (in this case "Just how much..." referring to the extent to which the prime minister's scandal has affected people) as the subject of a sentence, 
far away from the verb
Notice that the constituents: the Prime Minister's scandal, the trust, and the opinions (three of the nouns between the subject and verb) are illogical as "pressing questions." So those can quickly be eliminated as 
potential subjects just for logic's sake. And then grammatically, "the opinions of fellow world leaders​" is a noun phrase parallel to "the trust of her constituents," which you can see 
is part of the object of "has affected."
The subject of the underlined verb is "Just how much," a singular subject, so you need a singular verb. Then the combination of the timeline (this situation is ongoing, as evidenced 
by "has affected") and the need for "most pressing" should lead you to the correct answer, answer choice C.

VeritasPrepKarishma  - Is this updated version correct?
Thanks

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

Just how much the prime minister's scandal has affected the trust of her constituents and the results of the election next fall had been among the most pressing questions facing the country and Europe as a whole.

had been among the most
are among the more
is among the most
were among the more
are among the most

A)had been among the most
B)are among the more
 C)is among the most 
D)were among the more
E)are among the most
 
Subject:Minister's scandal is singular and should have 'is' and not 'are' or 'were', had ben is wrong because there is no second past action or event after the scandel.

C is the correct answer.

Chemerical71 · Answer

The correct choice should be E. The opinions is plural.

Just how much the prime minister's scandal has affected

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Just how much the prime minister's scandal has affected

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards