Adult ESL/ELL Advanced Quiz: Editing Subject Verb And Structure
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Editing Subject Verb And StructureQuestion 1 of 7

A graduate student submits this sentence for peer review: 'The board of directors, who has consistently opposed regulatory oversight, have announced that each of their quarterly reports reflect the company's commitment to transparency.' Which analysis of the sentence's agreement issues is most accurate?

'Who has' is incorrect and should be 'who have'; 'have announced' is correct; and 'reflect' is correct because 'each of their quarterly reports' places the plural noun 'reports' immediately before the verb, permitting plural agreement in advanced academic contexts.
'Who has' is correct because 'who' refers to the singular collective noun 'board'; 'have announced' is incorrect and should be 'has announced' for the same reason; and 'reflect' is correct because 'reports' is the logical subject of the relative clause and is plural, allowing a plural verb.
'Who has' is incorrect because 'who' refers to the plural noun 'directors,' requiring 'who have'; 'have announced' is correct because 'board of directors' is treated as a collective acting through its individual members in this context; and 'reflect' is incorrect because 'each' is an indefinite pronoun that always takes a singular verb, requiring 'reflects.'
'Who has' is correct because relative pronouns default to the nearest singular antecedent in complex noun phrases; 'have announced' is incorrect and should be 'has announced'; and 'reflect' is incorrect and should be 'reflects' because 'each' invariably takes a singular verb regardless of context.
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Adult ESL/ELL Advanced Quiz

Adult ESL/ELL Advanced Quiz: Editing Subject Verb And Structure

Practice Editing Subject Verb And Structure in Adult ESL/ELL Advanced with focused quiz questions that help you check what you know, review explanations, and build confidence with test-style prompts.

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Editing Subject Verb And Structure, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for Adult ESL/ELL Advanced.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

All questions

Question 1

A graduate student submits this sentence for peer review: 'The board of directors, who has consistently opposed regulatory oversight, have announced that each of their quarterly reports reflect the company's commitment to transparency.' Which analysis of the sentence's agreement issues is most accurate?

  1. 'Who has' is incorrect and should be 'who have'; 'have announced' is correct; and 'reflect' is correct because 'each of their quarterly reports' places the plural noun 'reports' immediately before the verb, permitting plural agreement in advanced academic contexts.
  2. 'Who has' is correct because 'who' refers to the singular collective noun 'board'; 'have announced' is incorrect and should be 'has announced' for the same reason; and 'reflect' is correct because 'reports' is the logical subject of the relative clause and is plural, allowing a plural verb.
  3. 'Who has' is incorrect because 'who' refers to the plural noun 'directors,' requiring 'who have'; 'have announced' is correct because 'board of directors' is treated as a collective acting through its individual members in this context; and 'reflect' is incorrect because 'each' is an indefinite pronoun that always takes a singular verb, requiring 'reflects.' (correct answer)
  4. 'Who has' is correct because relative pronouns default to the nearest singular antecedent in complex noun phrases; 'have announced' is incorrect and should be 'has announced'; and 'reflect' is incorrect and should be 'reflects' because 'each' invariably takes a singular verb regardless of context.
Explanation: When a sentence contains multiple noun phrases before verbs, you need to carefully identify the true antecedent or subject of each verb rather than defaulting to the nearest noun. In this sentence, three agreement decisions must be evaluated. First, "who" in "who has consistently opposed" refers back to "directors" — the plural noun — not to "board." Since "directors" is plural, the relative clause requires "who have," making "who has" incorrect. Second, "have announced" is actually defensible: "board of directors" is a collective noun, and when the board acts through its individual members (as implied by the context of group deliberation), British-influenced academic English frequently treats it as plural. "Have announced" is therefore acceptable here. Third, "each of their quarterly reports reflect" contains a critical error — "each" is an indefinite pronoun that functions grammatically as singular, always, regardless of what follows it. Even though "reports" is plural, "each" is the true subject, so the verb must be "reflects." Option C captures all three of these judgments correctly, making it the best answer. Option A wrongly claims "reflect" is permissible in advanced contexts — proximity to a plural noun never overrides "each's" singular requirement. Option B incorrectly defends "who has" by appealing to "board" as singular, while simultaneously arguing "reports" governs "reflect," misidentifying subjects in both clauses. Option D invents a nonexistent grammatical rule about relative pronouns defaulting to the nearest singular antecedent — no such rule exists. Your strategy: whenever you see "each," "every," or "either" as a subject, the verb is singular — no exceptions, no matter how many plural nouns surround it.

Question 2

One of the most frequently misunderstood aspects of international trade law are the provisions governing intellectual property, which, along with environmental standards, have become central to every major trade agreement negotiated since 1995. The complexity of these provisions, combined with the lack of enforcement mechanisms, make compliance monitoring nearly impossible for smaller economies.

Which of the following correctly identifies and explains ALL the subject-verb agreement errors in the passage?

  1. 'Are' should be 'is' because 'one' is the grammatical subject; 'have' should be 'has' because 'which' refers to the singular 'intellectual property' as the nearest antecedent, making the relative clause verb singular; and 'make' should be 'makes' because 'complexity' is the singular subject of the final clause.
  2. 'Are' should be 'is' because the subject is 'one'; 'have' should be 'has' because 'along with environmental standards' joins 'provisions' to a second element, effectively creating a compound subject closest to the verb; and 'make' should be 'makes' because 'complexity' is the singular subject of the final clause.
  3. 'Are' is correct because the plural noun 'aspects' is the logical subject and determines agreement in the 'one of the' construction; 'have' is correct; and 'make' should be 'makes' because 'combined with' is a participial phrase, not a coordinating conjunction, and does not alter the singular subject 'complexity.'
  4. 'Are' should be 'is' because the grammatical subject is the singular 'one,' not 'aspects'; 'have' is correct because 'which' refers to the plural 'provisions,' and 'along with environmental standards' is a parenthetical that does not alter the subject; and 'make' should be 'makes' because the subject is the singular 'complexity,' not the participial phrase 'combined with the lack of enforcement mechanisms.' (correct answer)
Explanation: Subject-verb agreement gets tricky when words appear between the subject and verb, so your first job is always to identify the true grammatical subject of each clause — not just the nearest noun. The passage contains three verb choices to evaluate. First, "one of the most frequently misunderstood aspects... are" — here, "one" is the grammatical subject, not "aspects." "Aspects" belongs to a prepositional phrase modifying "one," so the verb must be singular: is. Second, "provisions... which, along with environmental standards, have become" — "which" is a relative pronoun referring back to "provisions" (plural), and "along with environmental standards" is a parenthetical phrase set off by commas, not a coordinating conjunction like "and." Parenthetical phrases don't change the subject's number, so "have" correctly agrees with the plural "provisions." Third, "the complexity... combined with the lack... make" — "complexity" is the singular subject. "Combined with the lack of enforcement mechanisms" is a participial phrase, not a true conjunction, so it doesn't create a compound subject. The verb should be makes. This makes D the correct answer: it accurately identifies that "are" is wrong, explains "have" as correctly agreeing with plural "provisions," and flags "make" as incorrect. Choice A wrongly claims "which" refers to "intellectual property" as the nearest antecedent — relative pronouns typically refer to the nearest logical antecedent, which here is "provisions." Choice B incorrectly treats "along with" as creating a compound subject — it doesn't. Choice C wrongly preserves "are" by calling "aspects" the logical subject, which misunderstands the "one of the" construction. Your strategy: when you see phrases like "along with," "as well as," or "combined with," treat them as parenthetical — they never create plural subjects the way "and" does.

Question 3

The data collected from the three separate field sites suggests a troubling pattern: not only the lead researcher but also her assistants was responsible for logging the anomalies. Because the equipment and the methodology both requires careful calibration, any deviation from protocol undermines the integrity of the entire study.

The passage contains multiple subject-verb agreement errors. Which revision most accurately corrects ALL errors while preserving the original meaning?

  1. Change 'suggests' to 'suggest,' change 'was responsible' to 'were responsible,' and change 'requires' to 'require,' because 'data' is grammatically plural, 'not only…but also' takes the verb form matching the nearest subject 'assistants,' and 'equipment and methodology' form a compound subject requiring a plural verb. (correct answer)
  2. Change 'suggests' to 'suggest' and change 'was responsible' to 'were responsible,' but leave 'requires' unchanged, because 'equipment and methodology' is treated as a single unified concept in scientific writing and therefore governs a singular verb.
  3. Change only 'was responsible' to 'were responsible' and leave 'suggests' and 'requires' unchanged, because 'data' has become an accepted mass noun taking singular verbs in contemporary usage, and 'equipment and methodology' refers to an inseparable procedural unit.
  4. Change 'suggests' to 'suggest,' leave 'was responsible' unchanged because 'not only…but also' always makes the verb agree with the first-named subject 'researcher,' and change 'requires' to 'require' to match the compound subject 'equipment and methodology.'
Explanation: When a passage contains multiple grammatical structures, you need to evaluate each one independently rather than assuming some errors are acceptable. This question tests three distinct subject-verb agreement rules simultaneously. Start with data: in formal and academic writing, "data" is the plural of "datum," so it requires the plural verb "suggest," not "suggests." Next, examine the not only…but also construction. This correlative conjunction follows the proximity rule — the verb agrees with the subject closest to it. Here, "assistants" (plural) sits nearest the verb, so "were responsible" is correct, not "was responsible." Finally, "the equipment and the methodology" is a compound subject joined by and, which nearly always creates a plural subject requiring "require," not "requires." Answer A correctly identifies and fixes all three errors using the right reasoning for each, making it the accurate revision. Answer B fails because it leaves "requires" unchanged, incorrectly claiming "equipment and methodology" functions as a single concept. While that logic occasionally applies to idioms like "bread and butter," it doesn't apply here — these are two distinct procedural elements explicitly listed separately. Answer C makes only one correction ("was responsible") and leaves both "suggests" and "requires" untouched. The defense of "data" as an accepted mass noun may reflect casual usage, but in academic and formal contexts — exactly the register of this passage — "data" remains grammatically plural. Answer D misapplies the not only…but also rule by claiming the verb agrees with the first subject. The proximity rule points to the nearest subject, which is the key distinction. Study tip: For correlative conjunctions (not only…but also, either…or, neither…nor), always match the verb to the subject closest to it — this is the rule most commonly misremembered on advanced grammar questions.

Question 4

A student revising an academic argument writes: 'A number of critics argues that the government's approach, together with its failure to consult indigenous communities, represent a fundamental breach of treaty obligations; however, the number of formal complaints filed to date remain surprisingly low.' Which of the following correctly identifies all the agreement errors?

  1. 'A number of critics argues' should be 'A number of critics argue'; 'represent' is correct because 'together with its failure to consult indigenous communities' effectively creates a compound subject requiring a plural verb; and 'remain' should be 'remains' because 'the number' is singular.
  2. 'A number of critics argues' should be 'A number of critics argue' because 'a number of' is an idiomatic expression meaning 'many' and takes a plural verb; 'represent' should be 'represents' because the subject is the singular 'approach' and 'together with its failure' is a parenthetical addition; and 'remain' should be 'remains' because 'the number' (as opposed to 'a number') takes a singular verb. (correct answer)
  3. 'A number of critics argues' should be 'A number of critics argue'; 'represent' should be 'represents'; and 'remain' is correct because 'complaints' is the logical subject of the clause, being the entity that is actually remaining low, and logical subject can override grammatical subject in advanced formal writing.
  4. 'A number of critics argues' is correct because 'critics' as the head noun of the subject phrase is plural but modified by the singular determiner structure 'a number of,' creating a singular governing subject; 'represent' should be 'represents'; and 'remain' should be 'remains' because 'the number' is singular.
Explanation: When revising academic writing, subject-verb agreement requires you to identify the grammatical subject of each clause — not the nearest noun or the most logical-sounding entity. This sentence contains three distinct agreement decisions, and getting all three right depends on knowing two specific rules. First, English distinguishes between "a number of" and "the number of." "A number of" functions idiomatically to mean "several/many" and always takes a plural verb — so "a number of critics argue" is correct. "The number of," by contrast, refers to a count as a single figure and takes a singular verb — so "the number of formal complaints...remains" is correct. Second, phrases introduced by "together with," "along with," or "as well as" are parenthetical additions, not true compound subjects. The grammatical subject remains singular ("the government's approach"), so the verb must be "represents," not "represent." Answer B correctly identifies all three errors using exactly this reasoning, making it the right choice. Answer A incorrectly claims that "together with" creates a compound subject requiring a plural verb — it does not. Parenthetical phrases do not join subjects the way "and" does. Answer C makes a serious error by suggesting that "logical subject" can override grammatical subject in formal writing. This is not a recognized rule; standard academic grammar requires verb agreement with the grammatical subject. Answer D wrongly argues that "a number of critics" is singular because of the determiner "a." The phrase is idiomatic; "a" here does not make it singular. Study tip: Memorize the pair — a number of = plural verb; the number of = singular verb. This distinction appears frequently in advanced grammar questions.

Question 5

Presented below is a draft paragraph from a graduate research proposal:

'The implications of the study, which examines how urban heat islands effect local precipitation patterns, is profound. Not only does the findings challenge existing climate models, but it also suggest that municipal planning strategies requires immediate revision.'

The draft contains multiple errors involving subject-verb agreement and word choice. Which revision addresses ALL errors most completely and accurately?

  1. Change 'effect' to 'affect,' 'is' to 'are,' 'does the findings' to 'do the findings,' and 'requires' to 'require,' but retain 'it also suggest' because in 'not only…but also' constructions, the pronoun defaults to the singular 'it' when referring back to the entire preceding clause rather than to a specific plural noun.
  2. Change 'effect' to 'affect,' 'is' to 'are,' 'does the findings' to 'do the findings,' 'it also suggest' to 'they also suggest,' and 'requires' to 'require,' because each correction addresses a distinct lexical or agreement error in the passage without altering the intended meaning. (correct answer)
  3. Change 'effect' to 'affect' and 'is' to 'are,' but retain 'does the findings' as an acceptable inverted structure, change 'it also suggest' to 'they also suggest,' and change 'requires' to 'require,' because auxiliary inversion in 'not only…but also' allows 'does' to serve as a dummy auxiliary independent of the number of the subject.
  4. Change 'effect' to 'affect,' retain 'is' as correct because the relative clause 'which examines' signals that the subject is the singular embedded study rather than the plural 'implications,' change 'does the findings' to 'do the findings,' change 'it also suggest' to 'they also suggest,' and change 'requires' to 'require.'
Explanation: When editing academic writing, you need to diagnose every error before choosing a revision — subject-verb agreement, word choice, and pronoun-antecedent agreement can all appear in the same passage. Train yourself to move through each clause systematically. The passage has five distinct errors. First, "effect" should be "affect" — here you need the verb meaning "to influence," not the noun "effect." Second, the true subject of the opening sentence is "implications" (plural), so "is" must become "are" — the relative clause "which examines" is a modifier, not the subject. Third, in the inverted "not only…but also" structure, the subject "findings" is plural, so the auxiliary must be "do," not "does." Fourth, "it also suggest" is doubly wrong: "findings" is plural, requiring "they," and "suggest" must remain uninflected after "they." Fifth, "municipal planning strategies" is plural, so "requires" must become "require." Answer B corrects all five errors cleanly and accurately, making it the strongest revision. Answer A is tempting but wrong because it retains "it also suggest," claiming that "it" can refer back to an entire preceding clause in "not only…but also" constructions. That claim is grammatically unfounded — the antecedent here is "findings," a plural noun, so "they also suggest" is required. Answer C incorrectly retains "does the findings," arguing that dummy-auxiliary inversion overrides subject-verb agreement. It does not — the auxiliary must still agree with its subject. Answer D incorrectly retains "is," misreading the relative clause "which examines" as the subject. Relative clauses modify nouns; they don't replace them as subjects. Study tip: When you spot one error in a sentence, don't stop — academic editing questions often stack multiple errors together to test whether you catch all of them.

Question 6

Neither the policy analysts nor the secretary of state have publicly acknowledged the extent to which domestic political pressures influences foreign policy decisions. It is widely understood that a series of diplomatic missteps, rather than a single catastrophic failure, have contributed to the current crisis.

Which of the following most accurately identifies the subject-verb agreement errors in the passage and provides the correct forms?

  1. 'Have' should be 'has' because the proximity rule assigns agreement to the nearest subject, 'secretary of state'; 'influences' is correct because it agrees with the implied singular concept of 'pressure' as an abstract force in formal policy writing; and 'have contributed' should be 'has contributed' because 'series' is a singular noun requiring a singular verb.
  2. 'Have' in the first sentence is correct because 'neither…nor' with mixed-number subjects defaults to the plural form as a general rule; 'influences' should be 'influence' because 'pressures' is the plural subject governing the embedded clause verb; and 'have contributed' is also correct because 'missteps' is the logical subject of the clause and overrides the grammatical head noun 'series.'
  3. 'Have' in the first sentence should be 'has' because with 'neither…nor,' the verb agrees with the nearest subject, 'secretary of state' (singular); 'influences' should be 'influence' because the subject of the embedded clause is the plural 'pressures'; and 'have contributed' should be 'has contributed' because 'series' is a singular noun and the prepositional phrase 'of diplomatic missteps' does not alter it. (correct answer)
  4. 'Have' should be 'has' because in 'neither…nor' constructions, some formal style guides require agreement with the first-named subject; since 'analysts' is plural, this would paradoxically require 'have,' making the original form correct; 'influences' should be 'influence' because 'pressures' is plural; and 'have contributed' should be 'has contributed' because 'series' is singular.
Explanation: When a question asks you to identify multiple subject-verb agreement errors at once, slow down and treat each verb independently rather than letting one correct identification distract you from the others. The passage contains three verbs to evaluate. First, "have publicly acknowledged" — the subject is a "neither…nor" construction joining "policy analysts" (plural) and "secretary of state" (singular). The proximity rule, used in formal grammar, says the verb agrees with the nearest subject. Since "secretary of state" is singular, the verb should be "has," not "have." Second, "influences" — the subject of that embedded clause is "domestic political pressures," which is clearly plural, so the verb must be "influence," not "influences." Third, "have contributed" — the grammatical subject here is "a series," and "series" is a singular noun. The prepositional phrase "of diplomatic missteps" modifies it but does not change the head noun. The correct form is "has contributed." This is exactly what answer C identifies, making it correct. Answer A fails immediately because it claims "influences" is acceptable due to some implied singular concept of "pressure" — this is invented reasoning with no grammatical basis. Answer B incorrectly states that "neither…nor" always defaults to plural and that "missteps" somehow overrides "series" as the governing subject; neither claim holds in standard grammar. Answer D starts with a deliberately circular argument about formal style guides to confuse you, but its conclusion about "have" being correct is wrong. As a study tip, remember these three patterns together: the proximity rule for "neither…nor," plural subjects inside embedded clauses, and collective/abstract nouns like "series" staying singular regardless of surrounding plural phrases.

Question 7

A student wrote the following sentence in an academic paper: 'The reason the negotiations failed were because neither delegation were willing to compromise on the core issues.' Which edited version corrects the structural and agreement errors while preserving the intended meaning most precisely?

  1. 'The reason the negotiations failed was that neither delegation was willing to compromise on the core issues' — correcting 'were' to 'was' after the singular subject 'reason,' replacing the non-standard 'because' complement with 'that,' and correcting the second 'were' to 'was' after the distributive singular 'neither…delegation.' (correct answer)
  2. 'The reason the negotiations failed were that neither delegation was willing to compromise on the core issues' — correcting only the second 'were,' since 'reason' in a complex sentence can govern a plural verb when the embedded clause contains a plural noun such as 'negotiations.'
  3. 'The negotiations failed because neither of the delegations were willing to compromise on the core issues' — eliminating the 'reason…because' construction and using 'were' to agree with the plural noun 'delegations' that immediately precedes the verb.
  4. 'The reason the negotiations failed was because neither delegation was willing to compromise on the core issues' — correcting both agreement errors but retaining 'because' as a conjunction, which is grammatically acceptable in formal writing when it follows a copular verb and introduces a causal explanation.
Explanation: When editing academic sentences, you need to check for three common structural problems simultaneously: subject-verb agreement, pronoun/determiner agreement, and non-standard complement constructions. Catching all three — not just one or two — is what separates a fully corrected sentence from a partially fixed one. The original sentence has exactly three errors. First, "the reason...failed were" is wrong because the subject is the singular noun "reason," which requires "was." Second, "the reason was because" is non-standard in formal academic writing; "reason" should be followed by "that," not "because" — saying "the reason is because" is redundant and considered informal. Third, "neither delegation were" is wrong because "neither" functions as a distributive singular, treating each member of a pair individually, so it takes a singular verb ("was"). Answer A corrects all three issues cleanly, producing grammatically precise, formal academic prose. Answer B fails because it claims "reason" can govern a plural verb when an embedded clause contains a plural noun — this is simply incorrect. The subject determines agreement, and "reason" is singular regardless of what appears in the relative clause. Answer C restructures the sentence rather than editing it, replacing "the reason...was that" with "because." While this avoids the "reason because" trap, it uses "were" with "neither of the delegations," which remains incorrect — "neither" still requires a singular verb even in this construction. Answer D corrects both agreement errors but keeps "because" after "reason," which formal academic style rejects as redundant and non-standard. Your study tip: memorize the phrase "the reason is that" as a fixed formula. If you see "reason is/was because" in academic writing, it always needs editing.