<ol>
<li>Some species of cloff dwelling sea birds that breed without nests lay eggs (that are partially cone-shaped;such eggs roll) in small circles, returning to their original positions.</li>
</ol>
<p>a) that are partially cone-shaped;such eggs roll
e) that are partially cone-shaped and rolling</p>
<p>The correct answer is A btw. </p>
<ol>
<li>(The prices of either of the cars seem to be well worth it).</li>
</ol>
<p>(C) Either of the cars seems to be well worth its price.
(E) Either of the cars seem to be well worth the price.</p>
<p>This one confused me. I remembered silverturtle said that to modify the noun in an either sentence, pick the noun closest to the verb and modify it. So CARS is closer to the verb. Shouldn't it be plural? </p>
<ol>
<li>(In) her essay A room of One's Own, virginia woolf famously (insisted on) a woman needs .....</li>
</ol>
<p>Collegeboard said "insisted on" is wrong. But I thought it was idiomatic!</p>
<p>Choice (E)‘s use of the present progressive tense to convey the eggs’ rolls is wrong. The sentence properly uses the simple present tense to describe the general behavior of birds and what results from it. The use of the progressive tense would be appropriate if we were writing about a particular instance of such behavior that was currently ongoing and whose ongoing nature we wished to emphasize. We wouldn’t for example, write, “On days when he goes to the store, Bob gets in his car and is driving very quickly to the market.” But we might write, “Right now Bob is going to the store, and he is driving very quickly.”</p>
<p>“Either” can be used in two ways that are relevant to subject-verb agreement.</p>
<p>The first is as an indefinite pronoun, in which “either” itself is the explicit subject of the verb but immediately after which is a prepositional phrase. For example, “Either of the dogs is a puppy.” The subject of “is” is “Either”; “dogs” is merely the object of the prepositional phrase and has no effect on subject-verb agreement. “Either” is always singular in this context.</p>
<p>“Either” may also function as a correlative conjunction. It introduces a list of two or more nouns or pronouns, as in “Either Chuggy or Wobbly serves me my Chum Burger.” Here, the subject is “Chuggy or Wobbly.” In fact, the presence of “either” here is trivial, as it does not add anything not already semantically conveyed by “or” alone. </p>
<p>When “either” is used as a correlative conjunction, the verb should agree with the noun or pronoun that is closer (or closest, when three or more items appear) to the verb. This is the same rule that applies to noun phrases in which “or” appears but “either” does not. Examples:
Either Slammy or his sisters are my favorite source of humor.</p>
<p>Either Slammy’s sisters or Slammy is my favorite source of humor.</p>
<p>The question at issue uses “either” as an indefinite pronoun, so the verb must agree with this singular subject.</p>
<p>I apologize that this distinction was not initially optimally clear in my original writing.</p>
<p>Please provide the entire original sentence, as where the clause is going is not entirely obvious to me. I’m also not sure if you actually meant to write “woman needs” rather than “woman’s needs” or a typographical error occurred. </p>
<p>I have two possible sources of error with this phrase in mind (neither of which suggests an idiomatic error), but I will withhold sharing them until I see the whole question.</p>
<p>“Insist on” + noun/participial phrase
My boss insisted on the rule change
My boss insisted on humiliating me in front of my girlfriend</p>
<p>“Insist that” + clause
My boss insisted that all employees must wear bunny slippers to meetings
My boss insisted that I submit to being called “Fart Knocker” in all sales calls</p>