With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Clevela

Correct and this construct should not be seen as a violation of this rule!

Who is/are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life?

Answer: Many communities are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life.

As for prepositional phrase, the rule is:

Words in a prepositional phrase cannot be the subject in the clause that prepositional phrase is a part of.

The two clauses in this sentence are:

i) With its plan to develop seven and a half acres of shore land, Cleveland is but one of a large number of communities on the Great Lakes

ii) that are looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses

As discussed, our book discusses this concept in detail.

Hello, BazingaGMAT. What is wrong with parallel infinitives? Sure, the second item omits to, but this sort of abbreviation occurs frequently in the language and on the GMAT™. Is the following sentence incomprehensible because it lacks a second to?

I like to ride my bike and run down the street.

The sentence is fine as written. When parallel entities are shorter, they often omit the word at the head of the first item—e.g., to and that are more common—because that word is carried over as an understood element. I would like to tell you that there is a word cutoff between what constitutes a short item and a long one, but that is not how the language works. You have to use your best judgment in the given context of the sentence. If, for instance, I were to add to my sentence above in a certain manner, I would drop in a second to:

I like to ride my bike, a $20K carbon Pinarello that is better engineered than an automobile, and to run down the street in my Vaporflys.

(Note: I do not own either of these items, so I might not be worth robbing.) I would suggest not following grammar so closely that you might be missing out on points of meaning. If you are unsure of something, just put that consideration on hold and look for easier comparisons among answer choices. And if you make a mistake based on a misapplication of a so-called rule, then you will just have to adjust your understanding of that grammatical convention.

I hope that helps. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Hello ramuramu1838,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

In this question, the "that..." phrase is directly preceded by the phrase "communities on the Great Lakes", implying that the "that..." phrase acts upon the plural noun "communities", meaning it needs a plural verb.

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

Meaning!

First, consider the "that are" scenario we have in (C):


The meaning here is that a large number of communities are looking to improve the quality of urban life and Cleveland is one of these communities. In other words, Cleveland is a member of a group, and all the members of this group are behaving a certain way. Makes sense.

Now consider the "that is" scenario we have in (B):


This time, it seems that Cleveland alone is looking to improve the quality of urban life. That may well be the case. But then, what is the modifier "of a large number of communities" doing there? If we're not being told that Cleveland is a member of a group whose members are all doing something, why mention the group at all? Are we supposed to assume the other communities aren't looking to improve the quality of urban life? At best, this is confusing. At worst it's nonsensical.

Because the "that are" interpretation is more logical, we can eliminate every option containing "that is."

The takeaway: there is no touch rule! You can't simply assume "that" always describes whatever noun it's closest to. You have to use context and ask yourself which interpretation makes more sense.

I hope that helps!

This question ate my brain too, but there is a very simple rule to this, RC (in most cases) won't jump over the verb. So, 'that' can't (again not a rule, but in most cases) jump over is and hence, can only modify communities.

Try the same logic in this official question:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/a-higher-int ... 83528.html

Hey Everyone!



Here's a video I published recently: The Three Meanings of "But".

It explains:

1. The meaning of the word "But" in this Official Question, and
2. The importance of deriving the Intended Meaning before eliminating answer choices

I invite you to watch this video, especially if you find the usage of "but" in this question unfamiliar. This video explanation even contains a practice exercise to help you cement your learnings.

I hope this helps.

Happy Learning!

Abhishek

We often see "but" used as a conjunction, but (<-- see?) in this case, "but" is used as a modifier describing "one." It's basically a synonym for "only" (or "just" or "merely"), as in: "Cleveland is just one of a large number of communities that are looking..."

Is the "but" needed? Not really. It simply adds emphasis, as in: "The annual Cherry Blossom Festival is but one of many reasons to visit Newark, New Jersey." The "but" just emphasizes the fact that there are multiple reasons to visit Newark. (Other reasons include graffiti and Portuguese food.)

I hope that helps!

Hi Guys, can someone please explain 2 quick things to me

1. Why is Cleveland not the subject, hence the use of it? or is this one of those "addictives cannot from a compound subject" scenario?
2. "looking to their waterfronts to improve" vs. "looking to its waterfront as a way to improve the quality of urban life and attract" - the former seems to suggest that the "Waterfront" will improve the quality of urban life?? That can't be logically correct? The option in choice E is wordy

I am probably missing something

Thanks

My pick was B
Please correct me if i am wrong. "That'' before the underlined sentence is a demonstrative pronoun. So it should be followed by 'is' because that is singular.Had it been referring to communities it should be 'those' instead of 'that' because 'that' is always singular and 'those' is plural.

Why cant Cleveland be considered as collective noun so that it can be used as singular.

Please explain the concept of 'one' when to use 'are' and 'is' ?
Thanks

Hi Shivikaa, it isn't strictly about the usage of one, but about the usage of that.

....large number of communities on the Great Lakes that is/are looking to...

Whether the verb should be is or are, depends on what that is modifying. Here, that is modifying communities (plural) and hence, are is the correct verb.

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

daagh VeritasKarishmaEducationAisle

And others,

Hi,

1. Isn't Cleveland 'one of' the communities ? Doesn't 'one of' make this singular ? In 'of communities' isn't 'communities' the object of preposition 'of' ?

2. Can 'communities' be object of a preposition and antecedent ? I thought we were supposed to ignore prepositions when looking for SV agreement.

Will appreciate help on this concept.

Thanks.

Posted from my mobile device

daagh

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply. The examples helped me put the puzzle together. I really appreciate it.

However, I am still being thrown off by my concept of 'of' being a preposition. Is it that the 'of' used is part of 'number of' rather than 'of communities'. ? Is this usage 'number of' idiomatic ?

Also, as per MGMAT, 'a number of' takes plural verb. How does that fit in here ?

Thanks

Posted from my mobile device

In Option C, does the phrase "looking to their" different from "looking at their"? If so, kindly tell me the difference.(Went with E)

It seems like we are talking about "one of the communities" in great lakes and hence it should take a singular verb. Not sure why communities are being considered as the subject?

This is admittedly a little bit confusing, but in this context, Cleveland isn't the ONLY community looking to its waterfront to improve the quality of urban life and attract. Rather, it is one of A LARGE NUMBER of communities, all of which ARE looking to their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses.

Because we are talking about a large number of communities, a plural verb is needed.

could someone help me out by explaining why the plural communities is the subject of the sentence and not Cleveland . Thanks .