त्वरित लिंक्स
English Language
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Read the following four complex sentences carefully, each containing potential structural or grammatical anomalies related to concord, parallelism, misplaced modifiers, or idiomatic prepositions: I. Neither the lead climatologist nor her primary research assistants was able to reconcile the anomalous temperature telemetry readings before the biannual symposium. II. Having completed the exhaustive field surveys across the arid plateau, the torrential monsoon rains suddenly disrupted the archaeological team's return transit. III. The board of trustees resolved that each of the executive department heads must submit their comprehensive budgetary proposals no later than Friday afternoon. IV. Not only did the distinguished anthropologist unearth a previously undocumented hominid fossil site in the Rift Valley, but she also cataloged over five hundred unique stone tool artifacts. Identify the option that correctly evaluates the grammatical validity of sentences I, II, III, and IV with respect to standard English usage.
✓ Correct! Well done.
✗ Not quite — the correct answer is highlighted above.
Detailed Explanation
Let us perform a rigorous grammatical evaluation of each sentence:
* **Sentence I contains an error:** Under the rule of proximity with correlative conjunctions (*'neither... nor'*), the verb must agree with the nearer subject. Here, the nearer subject is *'primary research assistants'* (plural), so the verb should be **'were'** instead of 'was'.
* **Sentence II contains a dangling modifier:** The participial phrase *'Having completed the exhaustive field surveys across the arid plateau'* logically modifies the archaeological team, but it is unattached or incorrectly modifies *'the torrential monsoon rains'*, resulting in a dangling modifier. It should be rewritten as *'After the archaeological team had completed...'*
* **Sentence III contains a pronoun agreement error:** The antecedent *'each'* is singular, yet the possessive pronoun used later is plural (*'their'*, instead of 'his or her'). For a detailed discussion on pronoun-antecedent concord, consult Wikipedia Reference.
* **Sentence IV is grammatically correct:** It demonstrates flawless correlative conjunction placement (*'Not only did... but she also...'*) alongside perfect structural parallelism and subject-verb agreement.
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