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ACT English 1.3 Grammar and Usage 668 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 1, Problem 3. Which answer best matches the subject of the sentence?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by livestock. Don't worry. The animals involved

00:07

were free range and grass fed, and the loving farmer read them bedtime stories every night.

00:15

What should replace the underlined words below?

00:17

Either the cow and the bull or the ram and the ewe are my prize teams.

00:27

Don't sweat it if this one is a little confusing.

00:30

It's tricky because it involves a few different rules about singular and plural subjects.

00:34

But never fear, we'll untangle this mess.

00:36

The conjunction "and" always glues together two things, so we're dealing with two individual

00:41

groups: "the cow and the bull" and "the ram and the ewe."

00:46

Quick tip: cows, bulls, rams, and ewes don't like it when you glue them together.

00:52

However, the format of the sentence is "either-or," which means that the subject is singular despite

00:57

the amount of livestock involved.

00:59

This makes both (A) and (B) incorrect, because they use the plural "are" instead of the singular

01:04

"is."

01:10

Once we know the verb, we know (C) is incorrect because "team" is a collective noun that can

01:15

include both a cow and a bull, or a ram and a ewe.

01:19

Or a boy snake and a girl snake for that matter.

01:22

We've now eliminated everything but (D), which gets its tenses right, making it the correct

01:27

answer.

01:28

Hm, now we're wondering, why aren't there fancy words that distinguish boy snakes from

01:33

girl snakes?

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