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ACT English 1.3 Grammar and Usage 633 Views
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Description:
ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 1, Problem 3. Which answer best matches the subject of the sentence?
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.
Full Transcript
- 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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