त्वरित लिंक्स
English Language
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In advanced English syntax and usage, identifying subtle grammatical infractions requires a rigorous examination of concord, parallelism, modifier placement, and lexical governance. Consider the following four sentences, each containing a specific structural or syntactic category:I. 'Neither the CEO nor the regional managers was present at the quarterly board meeting to defend the revised budgetary allocations.'II. 'Hardly had the renowned keynote speaker stepped onto the stage than the restless audience erupted into thunderous applause.'III. 'The committee members spent hours arguing amongst themselves regarding whether the proposed infrastructure overhaul is financially viable.'IV. 'Each of the candidates who applied for the prestigious linguistic research fellowship were required to submit an original portfolio.'Identify the option that correctly determines the grammatical status (whether grammatically correct or containing an error) of sentences I, II, III, and IV according to standard English grammar conventions.
✓ Correct! Well done.
✗ Not quite — the correct answer is highlighted above.
Detailed Explanation
Let us analyze each sentence individually:
Sentence I contains an error: According to the rule of proximity in subject-verb concord, when two subjects are joined by 'neither... nor', the verb agrees with the closer subject. Here, 'the regional managers' is plural, so the verb must be plural ('were') instead of 'was'.
Sentence II contains an error: The correlative adverb 'hardly' (or 'scarcely') must be followed by the correlative conjunction 'when' (or 'before'), not 'than'. 'Than' is exclusively used with comparative adjectives or the correlative pair 'no sooner... than'.
Sentence III is grammatically correct: The collective noun 'committee members' is treated as plural, taking the plural pronoun 'themselves', and the verb 'is' correctly reflects the timeless truth of financial viability.
Sentence IV contains an error: In the relative clause 'who applied for the prestigious linguistic research fellowship', the head noun determining the main verb is 'Each' (from 'Each of the candidates'), which is singular. Therefore, the verb 'were' must be singular ('was').
Sentence I contains an error: According to the rule of proximity in subject-verb concord, when two subjects are joined by 'neither... nor', the verb agrees with the closer subject. Here, 'the regional managers' is plural, so the verb must be plural ('were') instead of 'was'.
Sentence II contains an error: The correlative adverb 'hardly' (or 'scarcely') must be followed by the correlative conjunction 'when' (or 'before'), not 'than'. 'Than' is exclusively used with comparative adjectives or the correlative pair 'no sooner... than'.
Sentence III is grammatically correct: The collective noun 'committee members' is treated as plural, taking the plural pronoun 'themselves', and the verb 'is' correctly reflects the timeless truth of financial viability.
Sentence IV contains an error: In the relative clause 'who applied for the prestigious linguistic research fellowship', the head noun determining the main verb is 'Each' (from 'Each of the candidates'), which is singular. Therefore, the verb 'were' must be singular ('was').
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