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Question

Difficulty: HardSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Which option contains the correct pair of verb forms to complete the sentence below?

"The chief medical officer, together with several senior pathologists who _____ recently appointed to the emergency task force, _____ that the containment strategy is effective."

  1. A
    was / believes
  2. were / believesAnswer
  3. C
    were / believe
  4. D
    was / believe

Answer

The pair of verb forms that correctly completes the sentence is 'were / believes'.
The relative pronoun 'who' modifies the plural antecedent 'senior pathologists', requiring the plural past-tense verb 'were'. Meanwhile, the main clause subject is 'The chief medical officer', which is singular. Expressions introduced by 'together with' are quasi-adjuncts and do not form a compound subject, so the main verb must remain singular ('believes').

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the subject-verb relationship in the embedded relative clause.
The relative pronoun 'who' refers to the plural antecedent 'senior pathologists'.
A relative pronoun takes a verb that agrees in number with its antecedent, so the plural verb 'were' is required for the first blank.
2
Identify the primary grammatical subject of the main clause.
The head noun of the main clause is 'The chief medical officer', which is singular.
Parenthetical or quasi-coordinating prepositional phrases introduced by 'together with', 'along with', or 'as well as' do not make the subject plural.
3
Select the main clause verb that agrees with the singular head subject.
The singular verb form 'believes' must be used in the second blank.
The verb must agree strictly with 'The chief medical officer' regardless of intervening plural nouns.

Key Concept

Concord with Parenthetical Phrases and Relative Clause Antecedents
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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