English Question

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
1

This is a question from 2007-2008 ACT Booklet.

Dickinson’s last twenty years of letters - many over 1,500 words in length - [reveals] the breath and depth of her connection to the world through a wide circle of correspondents.
A. reveals
B. reveal

I chose “reveals” b/c I thought “20 years” would be the subject, and a duration of time should be considered as single. Can someone please explain this to me? Thank you!

2

First, cross of “many over 1,500 words in length” and “of letters” to avoid distractions. Once that’s done, there’s 2 easy ways to get the correct answer (reveal):

  1. Use your ear (twenty years...reveals) just doesn't sound right to me at least.
  2. Plural subject ---> reveal is the verb. If the sentence would have said, "Dickinson's past," then you would be correct with reveals.
3

@golfcashoahu So my question was why sometimes a duration of time should be considered as single whereas in this case, it’s plural.

4

@BHan98 You are right - when a time span is used as a single unit, it’s singular:
Twenty-four hours is too long to stay awake
but
Twenty-four hours were given to complete this task.

“Twenty years of letters” is short of “twenty years worth of letters” - it tells us about a huge number of letters, as in “a whole bunch of letters” which is plural.

Incidentally, “a number of objects” is plural, but “the number of objects” is singular.