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Difficulty: HardSubject-Verb Agreement

In the excerpt below, a grammatical correction is needed to ensure proper sentence structure and agreement:

The revitalization of urban green spaces in the metropolitan area has shown clear benefits for local ecosystems. Every one of the community parks, which incorporate native wildflowers and nesting boxes for songbirds, help to sustain local pollinator populations during the dry summer months. Consequently, urban planners are seeking additional funding to expand the initiative.

Which option is the correct replacement for the underlined verb help?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. helpsAnswer
  3. C
    helped
  4. D
    have helped

Answer

helps
The correct option is 'helps' because it is a singular, present-tense verb that agrees with the singular subject 'Every one'. The intervening prepositional phrase and relative clause contain plural nouns, but they do not change the grammatical number of the subject.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Locate the subject of the sentence containing the underlined verb.
The subject is the singular pronoun phrase 'Every one'.
The prepositional phrase 'of the community parks' contains a plural noun, but it acts as a modifier and does not determine the number of the verb.
2
Identify any intervening clauses that separate the subject and verb.
The relative clause ', which incorporate native wildflowers and nesting boxes for songbirds,' contains multiple plural nouns.
Recognizing that these plural nouns are part of a non-essential clause prevents the mistake of aligning the verb with them instead of the subject.
3
Select the verb form that matches the subject in number and fits the tense of the passage.
The singular present-tense verb 'helps' matches the singular subject 'Every one' and maintains tense consistency with 'has shown' and 'are seeking'.
Subject-verb agreement requires a singular subject to take a singular verb, and the context requires keeping the present-tense timeline.

Key Concept

Subject-Verb Agreement
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement

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