<p>Please explain me this writing question in Blue Book, page 846:</p>
<p>Introducing (A) new ideas and replacing old ones (B) is (C) always a highly controversial matter, especially when (D) there is already tension between an older and a younger generation. No error (E)</p>
<p>The answer is E, no error but why C is "is"?</p>
<p>this is an obnoxious question, to be sure. the shortest answer to your question is that, since this is the SAT, if (C) were changed to "are" you'd also have to be able to change "a highly controversial matter" to "highly controversial matters," and the question doesn't allow you to do that.</p>
<p>I've read the answer explaination in SAT prep online course. (A) is incorrect because "The gerund "introducing" is parallel with the later gerund "replacing," and they serve together appropriately as the singular subject of the sentence."
I don't understand their explanation; is there any grammar rule we can learn from this?</p>
<p>it's a bad explanation :)</p>
<p>what's really going on here is that this is an idiomatic use of something called a copular verb. "to be" and "to become" are the main copular verbs in english. copular verbs are unique because their function is to equate the thing that comes before them with the thing that comes after them, basically like an equal sign in math.</p>
<p>so in this sentence, "introducing new ideas" and "replacing old ones" are being equated to "a highly controversial matter" by the verb "to be." the problem is that the things in front of the copular verb are plural, and the thing after the copular verb is singular, so how will we conjugate the verb?</p>
<p>idiomatically, you'll hear it go either way in spoken english. on the SAT, we try to make as many things agree in number as we can; if the SAT thought "is" needed to be "are," they would have made it possible for you to change the other things to plural, as well. since they didn't, you know "is" is fine.</p>
<p>(based on explanations like this, i think, but i'm not sure, that the explanations aren't written by the people who write the questions.)</p>
<p>also, to address the explanation itself: a gerund is treated, grammatically, like it's a regular noun. there are no special rules about the parallel use of gerunds that don't apply equally to the parallel use of all nouns. so the explanation is garbage, in short :)</p>
<p>however, on BB pg 878 #14, the convenience and widespread availability of watercolor paint " account" for its popularity with amateur artists.
Then why in this case it is plural?</p>
<p>exactly--that's why the CB's explanation for the gerund question is ridiculous.</p>
<p>"account" is not a copular verb. it's just a regular verb. as such, it doesn't equate anything to anything else, and it doesn't have the option of conjugating to match either its subject or its predicate nominative (in fact, non-copular verbs like "account" don't even have predicate nominatives).</p>
<p>so here's the basic rule: on the SAT, when you have a compound subject and the verb "to be," you can conjugate "to be" so that it agrees with a singular predicate nominative like "a highly controversial matter." non-copular verbs (that is, any verb that isn't "to be" or "to become") have to be conjugated to agree with their subjects.</p>
<p>Can someone explain #28 pg 847 </p>
<p>Whether or not they were successful AS A CANDIDATE, women such as Geraldine Ferraro and Pat Schroeder HAVE OPENED the door TO the ELECTION OF a woman as President. </p>
<p>a. as a candidate
b. have opened
c. to
d. election of
e. no error </p>
<p>the answer is A...</p>
<p>the subject is they. "they" cannot be a candidate. they must be candidates</p>
<p>xitammarg! - reverse for Grammatix? </p>
<p>You are damn too good. I've learnt so many things from all your posts today! Are you a grammar teacher or something? Or just an experience jaded-2400 SAT taker?</p>
<p>grammatix–</p>
<p>thank you so much for your explanation regarding copular verbs. i’ve been killing myself over problems like these and it frustrates me how the “SAT experts” i’ve consulted don’t help much when it comes to the really tough problems. </p>
<p>that said, i’m still a bit confused. when you said:</p>
<p>“idiomatically, you’ll hear it go either way in spoken english. on the SAT, we try to make as many things agree in number as we can; if the SAT thought “is” needed to be “are,” they would have made it possible for you to change the other things to plural, as well. since they didn’t, you know “is” is fine.”</p>
<p>how does that apply to the sentence “We are the new team.”? Does that mean that it is also okay to say “We is the new team.”? I am confused on the boundary between copular verb problems and simple subject-verb agreement problems. </p>
<p>Oh, and just to double check. In your explanation you’re basically saying that “is” isn’t WRONG although it COULD be changed to “are” and still work (both scenarios would have equal number of agreements). “is” is only wrong if both sides were plural, which would necessitate an “are” to maximize number of agreements. Am I correct?</p>