Common knowledge tells us that sensible exercise and eating properly will ... ...
Determine whether or not there is an error in the underlined portion of the sentence above. If there is no error, select answer choice "A".
(A) eating properly will result
(B) ...
(C) ...
(D) ...
(E) ...
*This question is included in
Nova Press: Set D - Faulty Parallelism
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Posted: 01/06/2012 07:48
The subject sensible eating and proper diet.... Isn't plural?
Contributor
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Posted: 01/09/2012 01:01
Hey Santanu,
The issue isn't one of plurality or singularity.
You need to ensure that the structure of the first pair ("sensible exercise", which is an adjective-noun pair) is repeated by the second pair.
With choice (D), we have "proper diet", which is another adjective-noun pair.
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Posted: 09/22/2012 19:28
I fully agree with Santanu.
This is very misleading.
Subject is "sensible exercise AND proper diet" so i do not understand why the verb is "results". I know that present sounds better than preterite. But I find preterite still the less worse option.
Fred
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Posted: 09/22/2012 19:37
I just read this on your list of rules in the correction pane :
1. A pronoun should be plural when it refers to two nouns joined by and.
So why is "sensible exercise AND diet resultS..." acceptable if they are 2 nouns?
Contributor
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Posted: 09/24/2012 16:52
It is very confusing. The explanation is that "sensible exercise and proper diet" is a generally acceptable truth that is treated as a singular noun or subject.
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Posted: 03/21/2013 16:15
In my opinion, "sensible exercise and proper diet" have (or has, as the test makers consider) not yet solidified as to gain a form of colloquialism to be referred to in singular. It does sound inappropriate.
Admin
Reply 1 of 1
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Posted: 03/24/2013 06:02
Hi Ben,
Whether the verb should be singular or plural for the compound noun "sensible exercise and proper diet" is subjective. To my ear, the singular noun "results" sounds more natural. Nevertheless, the problem is testing the parallel structure of the nouns "exercise" and "diet," so (D) is the best answer even if you prefer a plural noun
Nova Press
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Posted: 03/28/2013 12:49
Well, I think that this kind of question hardly, if anyhow, test knowledge of the English language, given that (D) should be considered the best answer... How is a test-taker supposed to know what a test-maker wanted to test? Parallelism or noun + verb agreement?...
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Posted: 03/28/2013 12:56
*tests*
The irony of commenting on noun + verb agreement :)
Contributor
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Posted: 03/28/2013 13:44
Ben Fills, fair point. And, yes, the irony. :)
