The type of alliances formed by businesses in pursuit of their various

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 89: Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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The type of alliance  formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are  one critical component of great leadership decisions.

(A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are

(B) formed by business in pursuit of their various objectives is

(C) forming businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is

(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are

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Ashokshiva · Accepted Answer

The verb ''are''  at the end of the underlined portion should match with the subject in the beginning of sentence  ''The type''  , which is  singular .

Also  ''their''  refers to  ''businesses'' , which is  plural .

Option-D correctly matches the Subject-Verb & Noun -Pronoun:

(D) formed by  businesses  in pursuit of  their  various objectives  is

Loser94 · Answer

(A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are
 Various + objectives incorrect 
(B) formed by business in pursuit of their various objectives is
plural noun (subject) alliances incorrect
(C) forming businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are
Modifier misplacement forming modifies alliances
(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is
incorrect same as B
(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are
Correct

pk123 · Answer

The type of alliances formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are one critical component of great leadership decisions.

(A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives  are  
should be is

(B) formed by business in pursuit of  their  various objectives is
their does not have any logical antecedent, alliances as antecedent does not make sense

(C)  forming  businesses in pursuit of their various objectives  are .
should be formed and are should be replaced by is...forming suggests its happening at the moment

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is
CORRECT. their logical antecedent is businesses and is goes well with type

(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various  objective   are 
should be objectives and are should be replaced by is

KanishkM · Answer

IMO D

Type of alliances -> Plural, will be formed by businesses and not business, With this in mind we can eliminate  B .

C)  can be removed because of the +ing verb, Intent of the sentence is that type of alliances is formed out of something

(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are
objective singular, it should be plural -> Eliminate

(A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are
Type of alliances  is  one of the critical component and not are

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is
Correct Answer

Archit3110 · Answer

The type of alliances: singular so  is vs are  is would be correct..

left with option B & D

in B formed by business in pursuit of  their  is wrong as business is singular

in D businesses in pursuit  of their  correct ; plural businesses...

IMO D 
 
The type of alliances  formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are  one critical component of great leadership decisions.

(A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are

(B) formed by business in pursuit of their various objectives is

(C) forming businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is

(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are

Stratos · Answer

Firstly, split between "is" and "are".
"The type of alliances" is singular. Hence, "is" is correct.
B and D remain.

Secondly, the term "their" refers to a plural noun.
"Businesses" is required.
D is correct.

pikolo2510 · Answer

sudarshan22   aragonn

Can you explain why E is correct and why D is incorrect?

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi pikolo 2510.

I think the more interesting question is why (E) is correct but (A) is not, as the two are identical.

Getting back to your question, there is no clearly correct choice to this question.

A "type" would not be a component, but the singular subject "type" does agree with the singular verb "is." So, (D) does not make sense but has subject-verb agreement.

I guess the basis of (E)'s being correct is an idea that "type" is some kind of collective noun that is plural if it represents a plural group of nouns. That take does not really make sense, but it seems to be the rationale underlying (E)'s being the OA. Of course, the subject complement, "one critical component" is singular. So, even if we were to accept that "type" is a collective noun, to say that "alliances" are a component would not make complete sense.

In the final analysis, this question does not have a clearly correct choice and has two answers that are exactly the same. So, your best bet is to ignore this question.

aragonn · Answer

pikolo2510  - Indeed an ambiguity here. I felt the same way when I saw this question yesterday. here is my understanding, Though wait for  sudarshan22  to put OE. Meanwhile I would add  generis  - her views would definitely helpful for us.

Look at following lines.
 the type of beer - for sure singular.
the type of beers - singular/plural - lets assume there are 10 beers. it cant be of one type for sure. the type must be plural ?
the types of beers - plural for sure. 
The type of beers I like, are German. - but point is the type is German or the beer is German. ? So is/are need to be used for German and not for type. Again we need to take decision on the basis of meaning.

Same way I will ask question on the ground, 'alliances' is critical or 'the type of alliances' is critical ? something tells me 'alliances' is what important here as its for 'their various objectives'. Mark that 'kind of' or 'sort of' is also used in same fashion. usage must be governed by meaning.

sudarshan22 · Answer

Official Explanation :

The main verb in this sentence is  are , and its subject is  type , since  type  is singular and  are  is plural, the two are not in agreement. Eliminate  (A), (C) , and  (E) .

Choice (B)  has the plural pronoun  their  referring back to the singular noun  business . As these two words do not agree (B) can be eliminated.

Choice (D)  correctly conjugates  are  as  is  and keeps the word  businesses  as it is.  Choice (D)  is the correct answer.

generis · Answer

aragonn  ,  pikolo2510  , the answer is D. I changed the OA.

sudarshan22  transcribed the question perfectly.

Options A and E differ by one letter. 
Option A uses plural  objectives . 
Option E uses singular  objective.

As far as the phrase "type of alliances"?

It's legitimate. It is used in a specialized manner; I would almost call it a "term of art."

But I think it is plural. The literature I trust uses it as a plural collective noun.

I ran a JSTOR search. Many articles use the phrase.
If you run a Google search, type in, with quotation marks, "type of alliances"

• Look at the third sentence  HERE .
(That journal is well-respected.)
• In this excerpt, see #1 in the first paragraph,  HERE .
•  and HERE

This sentence makes sense with the phrase:
Were there significant differences in the number, context, duration, and type of alliances Company X formed before and after deregulation?*

I have two choices.
I can leave the question as-is.
I can change the original to "type of alliance" and note the change.

Give me a little while to check a few things.

Hope that helps.

*See More, Elizabeth & Mcgrath, Michael. (2011).  Strategic alliances as collaborative strategy or a method of implementing strategy: A case study.  
Accessed  HERE, p. 14  on Feb 4, 2019.

nipunjn · Answer

A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are(Incorrect)

(B) formed by business in pursuit of their various objectives is(Incorrect)

(C) forming businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are(Incorrect)

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is(Correct)

(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are(Incorrect)

VerbalBot · Answer

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The type of alliances formed by businesses in pursuit of their various

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