<p>Okay. Thanks a lot for your answer QuantMech. Here are my thoughts on it:</p>
<p>In number 2: </p>
<p>I don’t get that specific meaning of your sentence. I am hypothesizing maybe that because the sentence when inverted will be ‘Taking me to art exhibits and galleries from the time I was ten years old, that I have little interest in art is not the fault of my parents.’ which is obviously wrong. It’s like saying ‘Because they were fighting, they got a divorce’ and then rounding it to be ‘They got a divorce because they were fighting.’ so could it be wrong because it doesn’t result in a correct sentence when reversed? </p>
<p>In number 3: </p>
<p>Look at this ID Error question: (Like many) people, Luanne believes that parents can foster musical ability in small children (out of) (playing) classical music for them while (they are) infants.</p>
<p>The answer here is (B), because it should be ‘by’, and the ‘they’ is not ambiguous. However, canhazphysics has explained to me the following:</p>
<p>“Ambiguity is an error ONLY when there can be a logical confusion (the syntax is correct when there’s ambiguity, usually.) Here, it is obvious the parents will play for the infants; you can’t expect the infants to play for themselves, or, if they was really ambiguous, for the parents.”</p>
<p>So why on earth is the answer of the Virgil question (D)?!!! Maybe the answer key is wrong? It’s very clear from the meaning that the poem was the the one not polished, and not him. I don’t know, but if the Virgil question is (D) then the one posted above will have two errors and vice versa. How on earth do we determine that something’s ambiguous?!!! What is the rule???</p>
<p>I understood your answer for question 1 though, so thanks again! :)</p>
<p>I’m having problems with this from the Barron’s study guide
It is typical of military service for a skilled technician to be inducted and (then you spend your whole tour of duty) peeling potatoes and cleaning latrines.
(A) then you spend your whole tour of duty
(B) to spend your whole tour of duty
(C) then they spend their whole tour of duty
(D) to spend their whole tour of duty
(E) then spend her whole tour of duty<br>
Correct answer (according to the Answer key) is (E).
Although it corrects the subject pronoun disagreement, E has a fault in its parallel structure, since to my mind the second part (spend) belongs to “it’s typical”.
Any help will be appreciated.</p>
<p>I think it would be better to write “to be inducted and then to spend . . .” I think this would resolve the problem with parallelism that you mentioned, delusionalyouth. CB does not seem to be fanatical about parallelism when it comes to active/passive, except when they are! There must be some sort of logic in it, but I have not figured it out. In this case, I think you need to pick the “least bad” choice.</p>
<p>To the disappointment of the crowd, neither the president nor any of his aides were able to attend the ceremony.
Were is the error according to Barron’s because neither is singular. However I know the verb in this case should math “any of his aides”. Is “any” plural or singular in this part? Cause I feel like this is no error…</p>
<p>Barron’s is wrong. Neither…nor presents a situation in which the subject closest to the verb dictates number, so in this case “aides” dictates “were”. This doesn’t come out on the test, though (another way in which Barron’s is wrong). Barron’s writing material is inaccurate.</p>
<p>The word “aides” is the object of the preposition “of”, and therefore it is not a subject. kdengg, you are right that “any” is the second subject in the Neither . . . nor . . . construction. And yes, “any” is considered singular by old school grammarians, even when it is used with “of the X” and X is plural. Presumably this is because “any” refers to any single individual selected from the group of the X. There is some disagreement on this point of grammar, and I have seen a New York Times blogger refer to it as one of “Miss Thistlebottom’s rules.” So it may be that CB will drop it eventually. Barron’s is not wrong, though; that source is adhering to the rules that CB used to observe universally. If a construction like this is the only possible choice other than “No error,” then you are probably better off taking the view that “any” is still singular in CB’s view.</p>
<p>Ok, if that’s what CB is now doing. In the future, though, if you are writing for a college professor who is 45+, I’d still suggest “Is any of the kids sick?” as the correct form.</p>
<p>I agree with marvin100 that any’s singularity or plurality depends on the intervening prepositional phrase. But this is like none. It’s a very controversial matter, so I doubt CB will test indefinite pronouns on the real SAT.</p>
<p>Hello again,
a problem from the Princeton Review book, to which I have the answer key, but no explanation.
Cooperation (between) the five largest companies (is) vital (if they are) serious about decreasing unemployment rates. (No error)
The right answer seems to be between, which keeps me in an eternal state of confusion,
since I’ve looked on the internet and found the use of cooperation with between even if it refers to one group. Or is it that among is right here?
2nd problem:
During the 1990s, university communities (such as) Athens, Georgia and Austin, Texas rose to fame, or (at least rose to fame) within the nation’s college radio audience, because of (their) thriving music (scene).
Answer is D and I have no idea why. It’d be great if anyone had any suggestions.</p>
<p>Right, on the first question, the word should be “among” rather than “between,” since it’s five companies. “Between” is derived from an old root word meaning “two,” so you would say “between you and me,” and that would be correct, or you would say “among us,” when “us” refers to three or more people.</p>
<p>In the second question, “scene” should be “scenes.” The idea is that there is not just one music scene in Athens and Austin (and other university communities), but multiple scenes. You could also view it as a question of agreement with the plural “their.”</p>
<p>QuantMech wrote:
“In the future, though, if you are writing for a college professor who is 45+, I’d still suggest “Is any of the kids sick?” as the correct form.”</p>
<p>You’re way off base here. You may be thinking of “none.” There is no such controversy regarding the word “any”. Oh, and I’m a 40-year-old former English major :)</p>
<p>No, I am thinking of “any.” The old explanation was that “any” should be interpreted as “any one,” since a single person/object from the set X in “any of X” would be fill the bill. For example: “Is any of the children sick? Yes, Bill is sick.”</p>
<p>I’m older than you are–maybe it is just an older usage; and perhaps I was fairly accurate in suggesting 45+ as the cutoff age.</p>
<p>“Any” and “is” are like sulfur and saltpeter. Feel free to mix them together in certain settings, but when you do, please try to refrain from pounding the stuff into others’ faces.</p>
<p>Are there any confusion about this simple concept? If any person are confused, I’d be really sad. Any people who is confused, let me know. </p>
<p>(Grammar loves to be black and white, doesn’t it?)</p>
<p>But in all seriousness, why do you think “any one” is singular? When you say “any one,” how many "any"s is that implying exist? How about when you say “any people”? What is being implied about the plurality of the "any"s now? When you drop the “one,” you drop the singularity pending further notice. </p>
<p>This forms a universal rule in grouping terminology wherein the group being expressed has elements not necessarily known to the speaker, or where membership is implicitly defined. </p>
<p>For example:</p>
<p>The reason “many” is plural is because you don’t need to ask how many “manies” there are, since plurality is already implied.</p>
<p>The reason “few” is plural is the same. </p>
<p>The reason “none” is singular is because “none” is a singular entity in and of itself. You can’t ask, “How many 'none’s are implied there?” </p>
<p>This reasoning can be accurately applied to almost every such word. There are some subtleties. Why is “every” singular? If you say “every,” aren’t you talking about a group? Groups are plural! But a group isn’t, and “every” is a single group, a single entity. Thus it is singular. </p>
<p>“Any” isn’t an entity, like “every” and “none” are. It is not like “few” or “many,” where we know off-the-bat the plural status. “Any” can be most closely described as a modifying adjective that alerts the listener (or the reader) to the presence of ambiguity-- that is, it alerts the audience that the speaker is not sure of whom or what is contained in the group being described or asked about (e.g., which "any"s among collegeconfidential posters are old people, which "any"s among the kids are sick). Thus, “any” has its plurality determined by the noun it’s modifying. “Any one” is implicitly defined to be singular, as are “any person” and “any kid.” “Any people” can be, in certain cases, implicitly defined to be plural, as can be “any kids” and “any wheelbarrows.” But here there is ambiguity! Even if there is only one wheelbarrow that fits the bill, the reason the speaker said “wheelbarrows” instead of “wheelbarrow” is because he was under the impression that the group would contain multiple elements. “Any kids” is analogous. But in either case, the usage of a plural or singular conjugation of the verb would depend on the intended meaning, and, in the question form, the intended response. </p>
<p>Here, we’ll examine it in action. </p>
<p>Imagine a classroom far away in another time…</p>
<p>“None is singular” is a misleading oversimplification of one of the fiercest debates in grammar. The SAT doesn’t test the singularity/plurality of “none” for this reason.</p>
<p>I am happy to agree that the use of “any” was in flux 20-30 years ago, and it has now settled as a plural if used in a phrase such as “any of [plural noun]”, or to go with JimboSteve’s nuanced analysis based on context, or to follow the mathematician’s use of “any,” where “for any x,” means for an x taken individually (which could fit with JimboSteve’s interpretation). </p>
<p>I am also happy to withdraw my suggestion that a student taking the SAT should treat “any” as singular if the question arises. I originally suggested this because I believe that was the earlier usage, the SAT Writing test has been around for a loooong time, and questions are often recycled. I don’t think the Barrons book had a typo; instead, I think the writers were following an older convention, apparently now outdated. </p>
<p>It would be interesting to know whether a question about “any of [plural noun or pronoun]” has been included recently on an exam or in one of the questions of the day.</p>
<p>There are a number of older grammar rules that are changing. I used to get dinged for treating “data” as a singular noun. Now that seems to be fairly widely acceptable.</p>
<p>Also, for JimboSteve: I liked your imaginary conversation in #1037. In my opinion, if one asks “Are any of the children sick?” and insists that “any of the children” must be plural, then a plausible answer would be “No, only Bill is sick.” (I realize that your argument is more subtle.)</p>