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Question

Difficulty: HardSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

In the sentence below, which pair of verb forms correctly completes the blanks?

'Neither the chief medical officer nor the consulting surgeons _____ pleased with how three-quarters of the emergency relief fund _____ disbursed by the executive committee.'

  1. A
    was / was
  2. B
    were / were
  3. were / wasAnswer
  4. D
    was / were

Answer

The correct option is 'were / was'.
The option 'were / was' is correct because it follows two distinct rules of English concord: 1) In correlative structures using 'neither... nor', the verb agrees with the subject closest to it. Here, 'consulting surgeons' is plural, so the plural past verb 'were' is required. 2) When dealing with fractions such as 'three-quarters of', the verb matches the noun following 'of'. Because 'the emergency relief fund' is a singular entity, it takes the singular verb 'was'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the subject-verb structure of the first clause joined by 'Neither... nor'.
Under the rule of proximity concord, when subjects are connected by 'neither... nor', the verb must agree in number with the subject closer to it ('consulting surgeons').
Since 'consulting surgeons' is plural, the plural verb 'were' must be used.
2
Analyze the subject-verb structure of the noun clause containing a fractional expression.
When a fraction or percentage modifies a noun, the verb agrees with the noun following the preposition 'of' ('emergency relief fund').
Since 'fund' is a singular uncountable noun entity in this context, it requires the singular verb 'was'.
3
Combine the resolved verb forms.
The correct pair of verbs is 'were / was'.
This combination satisfies both the principle of proximity concord and fraction-noun concord.

Key Concept

Proximity Concord and Quantity/Fraction Concord
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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