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Question

Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

What is the correct form of the auxiliary verb that fills the blank to satisfy subject-verb agreement in the sentence below?

Answer:Every student and teacher in the affected schools 【is】 required to report to the district office before noon.

Answer

The correct verb form to fill the blank is 'is'.
According to the rules of subject-verb concord, when two or more singular nouns connected by 'and' are qualified by 'every' or 'each', the subject is grammatically singular and requires a singular verb. Therefore, 'is' is the grammatically correct choice.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the subject of the clause and any quantifying modifiers.
The subject elements 'student and teacher' are joined by 'and' but are modified by the distributive quantifier 'Every'.
Quantifiers dictate whether compound subjects are treated as singular or plural in formal English concord.
2
Apply the rule of distributive concord for compound singular nouns modified by 'every'.
When singular nouns joined by 'and' are preceded by 'every' or 'each', the entire subject takes a singular verb.
The quantifier 'every' forces the subject to be considered individually rather than collectively.
3
Select the present tense singular auxiliary verb that fits the context.
The singular verb 'is' correctly completes the passive construction 'is required'.
The verb must agree in singular number with the subject.

Key Concept

Distributive Subject Concord with 'Every' and 'Each'
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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