SC -- collective nouns

[mr123]

The source is Man. Gmat 750 SC workshop slam homework problems

Some board game publishers have questioned the narrow nominee guidelines outlined by the Game of the Year committee because the pool of award nominees regularly push if not exceed the award guidelines. ( the underlined portion starts with regularly and ends with guidelines.)

A) regularly push is not exceed the award guidelines

B) push if not exceed the award guidelines regularly

C) were regularly pushed if not exceeded by the award guidelines

D) regularly pushes if not exceeds the award guidelines

E) pushes if not exceeds the regular award guidelines

The answer is D because " the pool" is singular -- I thought " the pool " would be plural -- like The English; The Americans;

How do you differentiate?

Thanks

Manju

[rfernandez]

Collective nouns can be either singular or plural, depending on context. Examples of collective nouns: group, class, crowd, jury, etc.

If the meaning of the sentence emphasizes the group of people/objects in unison, then it's a singular noun and requires singular verbs.
Example: The army has a strong presence in the region.

If the meaning emphasizes the many individual persons/objects separately, then it's a plural noun and requires plural verbs.
Example: After winning the award, the team called their parents to share the good news. (Notice "their" -- plural pronoun)

On the GMAT, singular collective nouns are much more common, so it's a good rule of thumb to pick singular. In the example you gave, it appears that all of the award nominees in the pool are acting as one, so a singular verb is better.

[mr123]

Thank you for the explanation

[RonPurewal]

this is also a situation in which you should note that the gmat uses american english preferences.

in british commonwealth english usage, the vast majority of collective nouns - committee, agency, the public, etc. - are plural ("the public are unaware"), while those same collective nouns are singular in american usage.

as rey said, collective nouns do occasionally see plural usage in american english, but we have not yet seen a single instance of that usage in an official problem. therefore, if you're in doubt, go with the singular.

[subodhgoyal]

Due to the highly sensitive nature of the court proceedings, the jury has been sequestered to prevent the leaking of information to the press.
1
2have been sequestered to prevent the leaking of information
3 has been sequestered to prevent them from leaking information
4 have been sequestered in an attempt to prevent them from leaking information
5 has been sequestered to prevent the leaks of information from them

in this case, Jury should refer to each member of the jury and hence should be singular.


However, OA is 1
please explain!!!

[pawan_chitturu]

Due to the highly sensitive nature of the court proceedings, the jury has been sequestered to prevent the leaking of information to the press.
1 has been sequestered to prevent the leaking of information
2 have been sequestered to prevent the leaking of information
3 has been sequestered to prevent them from leaking information
4 have been sequestered in an attempt to prevent them from leaking information
5 has been sequestered to prevent the leaks of information from them

Jury should be treated as singular, therefore "2" & "4" can be eliminated as they start with "have" which is plural
"3" & "5" can be eliminated as the sentence has "them" which is plural
Therefore "1" is the best choice as it satisfies all the requirements

[tmagaspirant]

Is it correct to use "Due to" in this question? I am asking not because this impacts the answer choice but because this contradicts the suggested convention for "Due to" in OG.

[RonPurewal]

you are correct; "due to" is used incorrectly here.

this thread hasn't seen any posts in 3.5 years. is this still an active problem in our database?

[tmagaspirant]

Hi Ron,

I saw this problem in my practice/mock MGMAT CAT exam. So, yes this still shows up in CATs at least.

[RonPurewal]

thanks, we'll have it fixed.

[Jov]

Due to the highly sensitive nature of the court proceedings, the jury has been sequestered to prevent the leaking of information to the press.
1) has been sequestered to prevent the leaking of information.........This is correct answer

What I learnt that "Prevent from" is right idiom. This sentence does not use Prevent from. Could you please explain in which situation we can eliminate "from"?

[RonPurewal]

What I learnt that "Prevent from" is right idiom. This sentence does not use Prevent from. Could you please explain in which situation we can eliminate "from"?

"Prevent someone from VERBing" is a correct idiom. But that doesn't preclude the existence of other constructions, with other meanings.

You can prevent someone/something/some animal from doing something.
We installed gates to prevent the dog from falling down the stairs.

You can also prevent a thing/event.
We installed surge protectors in our electrical sockets, to prevent power surges.

Languages have to be able to say a lot of things. In fact, they have to be able to express any idea that any person might ever want to express.
So, there will be plenty of cases in which the same words can be used in many different idioms that mean different things.