Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardSubject-Verb Agreement

Fill in each blank with the correct present-tense conjugated form of the indicated verb ('to suspect' for the first blank and 'to indicate' for the second blank) so that the sentence strictly adheres to standard English subject-verb agreement rules.

Answer:Neither the lead archaeologist nor her research assistants 【suspect】 that the subtle variations in soil composition 【indicate】 a significant shift in ancient agricultural practices.

Answer

The first blank requires the plural verb 'suspect', and the second blank requires the plural verb 'indicate'.
For the first blank, the correlative conjunction 'neither... nor' dictates that the verb agrees with the closer subject, 'research assistants' (plural), making 'suspect' the correct conjugation. For the second blank, the head noun of the subject phrase is the plural 'variations', which requires the plural verb 'indicate' despite the singular noun 'composition' occurring closer to the verb.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the subject structure for the first clause containing the correlative conjunction 'Neither... nor'.
The compound subject is joined by 'Neither... nor', linking the singular noun 'the lead archaeologist' and the plural noun 'her research assistants'.
When subjects are joined by 'neither... nor', the verb must agree with the subject closest to it, which is the plural noun 'research assistants'.
2
Conjugate the verb 'to suspect' for the first blank.
Since the closer subject subject ('research assistants') is plural, the correct present-tense verb form is 'suspect'.
Plural subjects require plural verb forms without an '-s' suffix in the present tense.
3
Identify the simple subject and strip intervening modifier phrases for the dependent clause containing the second blank.
The complete subject phrase is 'the subtle variations in soil composition'. The prepositional phrase 'in soil composition' modifies the head noun 'variations'.
Intervening prepositional phrases do not change the number of the simple subject. The simple subject is the plural noun 'variations'.
4
Conjugate the verb 'to indicate' for the second blank.
The plural simple subject 'variations' requires the plural verb form 'indicate'.
Choosing 'indicates' would be a proximity error caused by agreeing with the singular noun 'composition' inside the prepositional phrase.

Key Concept

Subject-Verb Agreement with Correlative Conjunctions and Intervening Prepositional Phrases
Rate this question

Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement

More questions from this topic