With a new park, stadium, and entertainment complex along the Delaware

Question

With a new park, stadium, and entertainment complex along the Delaware River, Trenton, New Jersey, is but one of a large number of communities that  is looking to use its waterfront as a way for it to improve the quality of urban life and attract  new businesses.

(A) is looking to use its waterfront as a way for it to improve the quality of urban life and attract

(B) is looking at using its waterfront to improve the quality of urban life and attract

(C) are looking to use their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract

(D) are looking to use its waterfront as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attracting

(E) are looking at using their waterfronts as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attract

Source  :  GMATPrep Default Exam Pack

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/30/us/midwest-cities-find-new-economic-life-on-old-waterfronts.html

Cleveland is just one of a large number of Middle Western  cities that are looking  to their waterfronts  to improve the quality of life and attract  people and businesses back downtown.

Anoushka1995 · Answer

___________________________________________________________

Hi Meghna,

Can you please explain how does the modifier 'that' modify the large number of communities and not one of the large no. of communities because then in the latter the verb would be singular.

Thanks.

Regards,
Anoushka Lamba

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  Anoushka1995 ,

This is a meaning call. The sentence is trying to tell us that there are many communities,  all of which are looking to do the same thing . Take the following sentences for example:

1.  She is one of the many students who are planning to take the GMAT this year.  ← This is read as "she is one of the many ( students who are planning to take the GMAT this year )". In other words, "she is one of  them ".

2.  She is one of the many students who is planning to take the GMAT this year.  ← "The many students" is now very awkward. This sentence tells us that she is planning to take the GMAT, but is silent on what "the many students" are going to do.

To sum up: it is a meaning call, and not a "rule", that decides what a  that  (or a  who ,  which ...) refers to.

GMATCoachBen · Answer

Anoushka1995 , great question -- this is a common source of confusion. The singular "is" is a tempting trap, because we are often crossing off the "of X" modifier to find the subject. The difference here is the word "that", which modifies "communities" to create the intended meaning (one of MANY that ARE ) -- "but one of a large number of COMMUNITIES that ARE looking to use THEIR " For example: ONE of the dogs IS gold. ONE of the DOGS that LIVE here IS gold. Here is another similar question for you to try: https://gmatclub.com/forum/biologists-b ... ml#p623532 There are also more details and examples from Ron Purewal's notes here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/subject-verb ... l#p1129636

adityaganjoo · Answer

esledge  If "its" in (D) refers to the river, is (D) still incorrect? Is there any parallelism issue with (D)?

mSKR · Answer

its refers to Trenton's .
But problem is SV agreement as per meaning wise
  are  looking to use  its  waterfront as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attracting

i hope it helps

hientranzx · Answer

With a new park, stadium, and entertainment complex along the Delaware River, Trenton, New Jersey, is but one of a large number of communities that is looking to use its waterfront as a way for it to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses.

Verb should be plural --> Eliminate A, B
(A) is looking to use its waterfront as a way for it to improve the quality of urban life and attract
(B) is looking at using its waterfront to improve the quality of urban life and attract

S: A numer of --> "Its" is singular --> Eliminate D
(D) are looking to use its waterfront as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attracting

Improving and attract is NOT paralle --> Eliminate E
(E) are looking at using their waterfronts as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attract

This is the right answer
(C) are looking to use their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract

SALAKSHYA · Answer

Dear experts, please help me with this question. I marked option D because i thought "its" in option D refer to Trenton.
Can you please tell me why this meaning is wrong?

(D) are looking to use its(Trenton's) waterfront as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attracting

Basshead · Answer

We want to use plural instead of singular because the whole purpose of the sentence is to describe what the communities are trying to accomplish.

If we wanted to describe only Trenton, then 'of a large number of communities' does not serve any purpose. We could simply say:

Trenton, New Jersey, is  but one of a large number of communities that  looking to use its waterfront to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses.

Since that is not the intended meaning, we need to use the plural form 'are':

Trenton, New Jersey, is but one of a large number of communities that  are  looking to use  their  waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses.

AwesomeYao · Answer

With a new park, stadium, and entertainment complex along the Delaware River, Trenton, New Jersey, is but one of a large number of communities that is looking to use its waterfront as a way for it to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses.

Test Points: SV agreement & idiom
 
(A) is looking to use its waterfront as a way for it to improve the quality of urban life and attract ( "that is lookingg to use...“ should modify "communities", so "are" is the correct verb )

(B) is looking at using its waterfront to improve the quality of urban life and attract ( Same as A )

(C) are looking to use their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract

(D) are looking to use its waterfront as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attracting ( "communites" are plural, so we cannot use "its" )

(E) are looking at using their waterfronts as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attract ( "looking at using..." is not idiomatic )

tkorzhan1995 · Answer

GMATNinja , could you please explain when that+modifier should refer back to immediately preceding noun, and when it can refer back to other nouns in the previous clause? Why it is not correct in this case that+modifier should refer to one of the communities, and not communities?

Vartikaa14 · Answer

Isn't 'that' singular? 
then how can it refer back to communities which is plural?

structure -

Trenton (subject of main clause)
is (verb)
but one of a large number of communities (object of main clause)
that (relative clause subject)
are looking (relative clause verb)

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Vartikaa14 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in this sentence, "that" serves as a preposition rather than as a pronoun.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  Vartikaa14 ,

You've correctly classified this  that  as a relative pronoun. As a normal pronoun or as an adjective (more precisely, "determiner"),  that  does have a plural form,  those , but as a relative pronoun,   that  does not have a plural form .

1.    That  was a tough question.   |    Those  were some tough questions.   |     That  were some tough questions.   ←  That  is used as a pronoun here, and has a plural form,  those .

2.     That  question  was tough.   |     Those  questions  were tough.   |      That  questions  were tough.   ← As a determiner,  that  has a plural form.

3.    A question   that  was tough...   |    Questions   that  were tough...   |     Questions   those  were tough...   ← As a relative pronoun,  that  does  not  have a plural form.

4.   The question was not   that  tough !   |    The question was not   those  tough !   ← Again, no plural form when  that  is used as an adverb.

And of course, if we use  that  to introduce a dependent clause ("She did {something} so  that ..."), we can't replace  that  with  those .

That  is not a preposition.

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  Vartikaa14 , as  AjiteshArun  has suggested, when used as a relative pronoun, "that" can refer to either singular or to plural noun.

For example, both of the following would be correct:

Peter has a car that is very expensive .
-  that  is referring to singular "car".

Peter has many cars that are very expensive .
-  that  is referring to plural "cars".

Yes, this structure ("one of...") is actually very common on GMAT. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  "one of the mysteries" , its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

thangvietnam · Answer

one trick gmat likes is that the pattern in correct answer is seldom used idiom or strange. this make us go away when we see the strange pattern we dont know . this is not good for non native.

"be looking to do " is an idiom, I, a non native, dont know.

the solution to this trick is simple. find the clear errors and eliminate the choices with the errors and, accept the remaining choice with the strange pattern. be ready to accept the strange pattern after realizing the clear errors.

apply above rule. in this problem , focus on parallelism and agreement, we can eliminate other choices but choice C.

GMATNinja · Answer

It's all about meaning here.

If we treat the "that" clause as a modifier for "communities" (plural), then we are basically saying:

"There are a large number of communities that are looking to use their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses." 
 "Trenton, New Jersey, is just one of those communities."

That makes perfect sense. But if we treat the "that" clause as a modifier for the  single  community, then we are basically saying:

"Trenton, New Jersey, is looking to use its waterfront {...}." 
 "Also, Trenton, New Jersey, is just one of a large number of communities."

Wait -- a large number of communities that  what ? Exist? Is the author simply trying to let the reader know that there are other communities out there besides Trenton, New Jersey? Well, that would be silly. The author wants us to know that Trenton is one of a specific subset of communities, all of which are trying to use THEIR waterfronts.

So, yeah, technically the "that" clause could refer to either, but one of those interpretations makes no sense at all.

I hope that helps!

himanshu0123 · Answer

RonTargetTestPrep

query usage of article 'the'

''Trenton, New Jersey, is but ???the one of??? a large number of communities ???that is looking??? to use its waterfront as a way for it to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses''

In this case, since the definite article ???the??? is present the focus prima-facie shifts to the article ???the???, which restricts the number to singular. Hence, the modifier ???that??? in spite of its essentiality will go along taking a singular verb ???is looking???.

Is understanding above correct?

testtakerstrategy · Answer

Bunuel , or another expert -- can you please post a similar question where "one" vs "the one" singular/plural indicators are tested? I got this wrong because I figured that the subject is singular.

EducationAisle · Answer

You can refer to  this question , which uses the structure  the only one , and is hence singular.

Other than this, one would usually expect the following structure:

James is one of the  people who donate  regularly .

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  "One of the" mysteries , its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

ironman_97 · Answer

Can you please elaborate on the subject verb agreement for such usages that use 'one of...' phrase?

With a new park, stadium, and entertainment complex along the Delaware

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With a new park, stadium, and entertainment complex along the Delaware

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