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GMAT Club Daily Prep
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17 Feb 2021, 03:30
Kudos
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C
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
15%
(low)
Question Stats:
77% (01:00) correct
23%
(00:57)
wrong
based on 125
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
As the results of the referendum were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament was surprised by the anger of the electorate.
A. were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament was surprised by
B. had been tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament were surprised at
C. were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament were surprised by
D. were being tallied, neither the members of parliament nor the prime minister were surprised at
E. were being tallied, neither of the members of parliament nor the prime minister was surprised with
A. were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament was surprised by
B. had been tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament were surprised at
C. were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament were surprised by
D. were being tallied, neither the members of parliament nor the prime minister were surprised at
E. were being tallied, neither of the members of parliament nor the prime minister was surprised with
ramlala
Joined: 22 Aug 2020
Last visit: 13 Dec 2022
Posts: 467
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 30
Location: India
Concentration: International Business, Finance
Schools: IIMA PGPX'23 INSEAD Jan'23 intake Sloan (MIT) ISB HEC Said
GPA: 4
WE:Project Management (Energy)
17 Feb 2021, 19:33
Kudos
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As the results of the referendum were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament was surprised by the anger of the electorate.
A. were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament was surprised by
S-V error
B. had been tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament were surprised at
past perfect tense is used, we do not need to mention timeline
C. were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament were surprised by
No Remarks
D. were being tallied, neither the members of parliament nor the prime minister were surprised at
S-V error
E. were being tallied, neither of the members of parliament nor the prime minister was surprised with
parallelism error
A. were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament was surprised by
S-V error
B. had been tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament were surprised at
past perfect tense is used, we do not need to mention timeline
C. were tallied, neither the prime minister nor the members of parliament were surprised by
No Remarks
D. were being tallied, neither the members of parliament nor the prime minister were surprised at
S-V error
E. were being tallied, neither of the members of parliament nor the prime minister was surprised with
parallelism error
24 Feb 2021, 02:15
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Bunuel
VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:
One decision point that should jump out at you as you scan the answer choices is the difference between "was surprised" and "were surprised." In a neither/nor (or either/or) construction, the noun after "nor" (or "or") is the noun that controls the singularity/plurality of the subject. So as you decide between "was" (singular) and "were" (plural), you should look at the noun after "nor."
As you can then see, answer choices A ("the members of parliament was") and D ("the prime minister were" can be eliminated.
While you're working with the neither/nor construction, look at how choice E jumbles it by placing the word "of" before "the members of parliament." This suggests that there are only two members of parliament (and that neither of them was surprised), and more importantly breaks the construction, as the "neither" here only applies to the (two) members of parliament. So answer choice E is incorrect.
Choice B commits a verb tense error, using the past perfect "had been" to set the vote tally further back in time from the surprise. This is inconsistent with the word "as" which serves to put those two events in the same time, so B has an illogical timeline.
Choice C then is correct: it uses a logical timeline, and properly applies subject-verb agreement using the noun after "nor" as the subject.
