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Question

Difficulty: EasyConjunctions and Clause Structure

Consider the sentence below:

'Neither the principal researcher nor the laboratory assistants _____ aware of the discrepancy in the experimental data.'

Which of the following options correctly completes the sentence?

  1. wereAnswer
  2. B
    was
  3. C
    is
  4. D
    has been

Answer

were
The word 'were' is correct because when two subjects are connected by 'neither... nor', proximity concord dictates that the verb agrees with the noun phrase nearest to it. Since 'laboratory assistants' is plural and adjacent to the verb, the plural verb 'were' is required.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the clause structure and conjunction type.
The sentence links two noun phrases using the correlative conjunction pair 'Neither... nor'.
Correlative conjunctions of this type require subject-verb agreement based on proximity.
2
Identify the subject closest to the verb position.
The noun phrase closest to the blank is 'the laboratory assistants', which is plural.
Under the principle of proximity concord, the verb agrees with the subject nearest to it rather than the initial subject.
3
Select the grammatically correct verb form.
The plural past tense verb 'were' correctly completes the clause.
'were' provides proper agreement for a plural subject in the past tense context.

Key Concept

Correlative Conjunctions and Proximity Concord
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Topics

Conjunctions and Clause Structure

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