OG (10th ed) - SC - #13

[MWW7786]

Hello Chris,

I know that your busy. I have two questions that originated from the OG 10th edition. You can void this message if you want. I just have been trying to get a viable answer for a really long time on these two questions, but gave up since no explanation was available at the time, both SC questions.

If you want give a try:

#1 The Federalist papers, a strong defense of the US constitution and important as a body of work in political science as well,
represents the handiwork of three different authors.

a. and important as a body of work in political science as well, represents

b. as well as an important body of work in political science, represent

c. and also a body of work of importance in political science is representing

d. an imprtant body of work in political science and has been representative of

e. and as political science an important bod of work too, represent


the answer is "b" - The federalist papers - is a titile, no? shouldn't it be singular represents? guess not.


2. The number of state residents enrolled full time at colleges in the state

a dropped from 45,000 in 1979 to last year, with fewer than 34,000

b. dropped in 1979 from 45,000 to less than 34,000 last year

c. was dropping in 1979 from 45,000 to lat year, with less than 34,000

d. has dropped from 45,000 in 1979 to fewer than 34,000 last year

e. had dropped from 45,000 in 1979 to last year, with fewer than 34,000

answer is "d", needs "fewer' and 'from to", but present perfect tense? last year.

[Carla]

it seems that the Federalist paperS ---> represent...

if it was the Federalist paper then you would want representS

[StaceyKoprince]

Can you please post the question numbers as well, so that others can look them up in OG if they want to? The first one is #213; I don't know the second one.

Only "The Federalist" is the title; papers is not part of the title. (Go take a look at OG again - The Federalist is italicized; the word papers is not italicized. So you do want plural here ("represent"). And then you need parallelism within the commas ("a strong defense... as well as an important body of work...") b/c both descriptions refer to the papers.

Present perfect tense is for an action that started in the past and is either still going on or still true today. This sentence fits the latter category - the data presented is still true (45k in 1979, 34k last year). Notice also the parallelism from [number, date] to [number, date]; the other choices break parallelism.

[PS]

I agree with Stacey in that Th Federalist and Papers are not parts of a single phrase but the text between commas seems to modify Papers not The Federalist. Shouldn't the modifier immediately follow the The Federalist instead of Papers? Or is it okay for a singular modifier to modify a plural phrase.

Hope I am clear in my question

Thanks
PS

[christiancryan]

"Papers" is a noun and the subject of the sentence. The phrase "The Federalist" (the title) modifies the noun "papers," so this phrase is not a noun -- it functions more like an adjective. So the phrases in commas ("a strong defense..."), which are noun phrases, should modify the noun "papers." That doesn't mean that those phrases should go BEFORE the noun "papers" -- try saying it that way, and I'm sure you'll see why that doesn't work! You can't separate "The Federalist" and "papers." The only requirement is that those second noun phrases should go NEXT TO the noun "papers" (and in this case, afterwards).

You CAN modify a plural noun with a singular noun, and vice versa. Doing so is equivalent to writing a sentence like this: "The Federalist papers WERE a strong defense..." You are allowed to equate a plural subject and a singular complement; likewise, a singular subject and a plural complement. You have to make sure that such a sentence makes logical sense, but in this case, it does. Hope that's helpful.