BB page 540 # 26

<p>I checked the consolidated list 3rd edition and couldnt find anything about this question</p>

<p>The number of awards given (this year)A to biochemists (accentuate)B the (significant gains)C being (made in)D the study of the chemistry of living organisms.</p>

<p>Can anyone tell me why B is wrong? I checked no error for this one
I thought accentuate is to stress, to emphasize
so wouldn't awards given to scientists emphasize, make it clear, and/or stress the fact that "significant gains" were made in the studies?
i dont see why it is wrong cus it makes perfect sense to me.</p>

<p>any ideas?</p>

<p>i think accentuate is right word to use but it was in the wrong tense</p>

<p>"Number" is a tricky word. While "a number (of ---)" takes a plural verb, "the number (of ---)" is actually singular, so the verb must be singular as well, "accentuates." I don't think there's a tense issue here.</p>

<p>oh wow I never thought of that thx very much
112358</p>

<p>112358 got it. When in doubt, take out the extra words and see if the the subject and verb agree first. I always use simple strategies like this. If nothing immediately sticks out to you, don't just choose No Error. Those are ALWAYS the trickiest ones.</p>

<p>^ Definitely. 90% of the mistakes I make on writing questions come form putting E when there actually was an error. Whenever you're tempted to put E, go back through and check each possibility very carefully, keeping in mind the most important rules for those parts of speech (especially subject-verb agreement, idiom errors, antecedent-consequent agreement, and parallelism - those are the easiest to overlook). Then when you finish the section, go back and check those questions again. And if you still have time, you'll probably want to check them again after that. And then maybe one more time after that. You get my point. :)</p>