The way in which the mighty blue whale and the other baleen whales—the

Question

The way in which the mighty blue whale and the other baleen whales—the finback, gray, humpback, and right whales— eats was discovered by  careful observation by biologists.

A. eats was discovered by
B. eat was discovered through
C. eats were discovered by means of
D. eat were discovered by
E. eat was discovered resulting from

Harsh9676 · Answer

Hi

My analysis,

A. The plural noun Mighty blue whale and other blue whales need a plural verb eat not eats

B. Plural Noun from the phrase in which.. agrees with plural verb eat and the main subject The way (singular) agrees with the singular verb was. Hence it is correct.

C. Same as A and the subject The way don't agree with were. Incorrect

D. The way don't agree with the plural verb were.

E. Discovered, resulted redundant.

Thanks 
Harsh

Posted from my mobile device

rocky620 · Answer

Hi,  Bunuel  I figured that the subject in the sentence is "The Way" which is singular and should have a singular verb eats. for this reason eliminated B,D & E.

"in which the mighty blue whale and the other baleen whales" is a prepositional phrase so it cannot be the subject.

In option C the phrase "by the means of" makes no sense.
In option A "discovered by" is a little awkward, but I selected this option as the S-V agreement error is not there.

Is the OA correct?

daagh · Answer

The way in which the mighty blue whale and the other baleen whales—the finback, gray, humpback, and right whales— eats was discovered by  careful observation by biologists.

A. eats was discovered by
B. eat was discovered through
C. eats were discovered by means of
D. eat were discovered by
E. eat was discovered resulting from

This is a complex sentence in which the sub -clause is enveloped within the main clause.

The main clause: The way was discovered by careful observation by biologists. The subject 'the way' is singular and therefore the verb should be the singular 'was'.

The sub-clause: in which the mighty blue whale and the other baleen whales——eat--- 'in which' is the sub -conjunction and the subject is the plural 'the mighty blue whale and the other baleen whales'. In tandem the verb should be the plural eat. 
Such a combination of 'was and eat' is available in B and E, of which E suffers from bad modification, because there seems to be no noun for the participle without comma to modify. B is the eventual choice.

dushyanta · Answer

Yes!

The way "wont eat", 
Blue whales eat
The Way was discovered

This is actually pretty good example why we should not be mechanical in our approach

rocky620 · Answer

Thanks for the explanation.
I missed the meaning of the sentence and went for the traditional approach instead.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The way in which the mighty blue whale and the other baleen whales—the

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The way in which the mighty blue whale and the other baleen whales—the

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