Lost among the junk and worthless antiques in the old New England

Question

Lost among the junk and worthless antiques in the old New England  barn was a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth and over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley that all together  were valued at well over a million dollars.

(A) barn was a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth and over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley that all together

(B) barn was a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth, over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley, and all together they

(C) barn, a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth, over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley, and all together they

(D) barn were a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth and over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley that all together

(E) barn were a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth, as well as over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley, all together

BillyZ · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Even though this sentence is quite confusing with the  subject-verb inversion  (the verb comes before the subject), you can still easily hone in on the decision point between “was” and “were” and do your best to figure out which is correct.

The portion starting the sentence “ Lost among the junk and worthless antiques in the old New England barn ” is quite clearly not the subject, but rather what is called the complement.

When you are delivered a sentence in the inverted order like this, read it back to yourself in the normal order: “a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth and over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley    WAS    or    WERE    lost among the junk and worthless antiques in the old New England barn” With that exercise you can see clearly that “was” is incorrect and eliminate (A) and (B).

(C) lacks a main verb (the “was” and “were” are taken out) so this answer contains incorrect sentence construction.

In (E), the structure used there (“as well as”) would then require the singular verb “was” and more easily the portion at the end “all together…” does not link back logically with the first parts of the sentence.

Correct answer is (D) .

BeingHan · Answer

Should be D. As we have two objects connected by and.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

chid2 · Answer

A. barn  was  a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth and over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley that all together (SUBJECT PLURAL)
B. barn was a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth, over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley, and all together they (MEANING CHANGED)
C. barn, a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth, over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley, and all together they (RUN-OFF)
D. barn were a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth and over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley that all together (CORRECT)
E. barn were a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth,  as well as  over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley, all together (SUBJECT IS SINGULAR)

mohshu · Answer

the subject is plural and hence the verb were is required,,

ans D

nightblade354 · Answer

This question comes down to D/E, the difference between them "and" vs. "as well as". In these cases, "and" gives equal weight of importance to items in a sentence. "As well as" gives more weight to the first item; hence, D is correct.

KB04 · Answer

Lost among the junk and worthless antiques in the old New England barn was a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth and over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley that all together were valued at well over a million dollars.

A. barn was a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth and over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley that all together - Subject verb agreement - Antiques were
B. barn was a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth, over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley, and all together they - Subject verb agreement - Antiques were
C. barn, a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth, over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley, and all together they - Fragment
D. barn were a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth and over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley that all together - Correct
E. barn were a rare painting by Andrew Wyeth, as well as over a dozen prints by Marsden Hartley, all together - Use of as well as in incorrect.

You can go to the below link to find out more about "and Vs as well as"

https://gmatclub.com/forum/as-well-as-v ... 24105.html

This is what mikemcgarry wrote:

First of all, "X and Y" is parallel structure, and both elements are regarded equally. In the construction "X as well as Y," X is the main focus and Y is an afterthought, of secondary importance: they are definitely not presented rhetorically as equals. This second structure is NOT parallelism.

Similarly, we would have "X and Y do P," plural verb, because "and" makes a plural subject even if X and Y are singular. That's called a compound subject. By contrast, we would have "X as well as Y does P,," singular verb, because "as well as" creates what is called an additive phrase, a noun modifier that is not considered part of the subject. See:
Compound Subjects & Additive Phrases

We could join more than two with either, but again, several element joined by "and" are all of equal rank, equal importance. If I join some element by "and" and other by "as well as," this is a rhetorical caste system, with the elements after "as well as" of lesser importance.

Joyce, Pynchon, and Vonnegut are important novelists of the 20th century.

That sentence presents the three authors as equally important.

The bookstore sells novels by Hemingway and Fitzgerald, as well as by Erich Segal and Mickey Spillane.

There is a subtle hint of judgment in that sentence: the works of Hemingway and Fitzgerald are put on a slightly higher level than the works of Erich Segal and Mickey Spillane.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Lost among the junk and worthless antiques in the old New England

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

Lost among the junk and worthless antiques in the old New England

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