SC: Since John Locke acknowledged authorship

[GK]

Since John Locke acknowledged authorship of his political works only in a codicil to his will, the period during which the Second Treatise on Government was written has been established through a close analysis of Locke's reported activities near the time of publication; however, because no original manuscript has been found, what is much more difficult to determine are the personal reason Locke wrote the Treatise, the changes he might have made to his first version, and the extent to which the published version coheres with Locke's intentions.


a) has been established through a close analysis of Locke's reported activities near the time of publication; however, because no original manuscript has been found, what is much more difficult to determine are
b) has been established through a close analysis of Locke's reported activities near the time of publication; however, because no original manuscript has been found, what is much more difficult to determine is

Hi folks! This one totally confused me. How to decide b/w the two? The way I approached this was as follows:

A says: what is much more difficult to determine are A, B & C
B says: what is much more difficult to determine is A, B & C

Inversion:
A says: A, B & C are what is much more difficult to determine --> 'what is' is singular so that conflicts with 'are' after A, B & C
B says: A, B & C is what is more difficult to determine  ---> how can 'is' follow A, B & C?


Can you please shed some light on this & explain which is a better choice b/w the two? Thanks.

Source: Princeton Review Online Test

[RonPurewal]

ick. ugly for sure, no matter which way you slice it.

this is a reverse construction - sort of like 'there is'/'there are' - so i would have to choose choice a: the seeming lack of agreement with 'what' is disagreeable, but the lack of agreement with '...is x, y, and z' is just plain wrong.

i don't like this problem any more than you do, but i could try to justify the 'what is' with the following analogous sentence:
X happens and Y happens; those two things are what is wrong with our court system.
apparently, according to the princeton review, that sentence is fine.

most importantly, keep an eagle eye peeled for this phenomenon on authentic gmat or gmatprep questions. it could just be a peculiarity found on the princeton review, in which case you won't have to worry about it; but if you see it in gmatprep, be sure to post it!

[GK]

Thanks Ron. Using the same logic as you, I picked A as well. But the correct answer according to PR is B. I will just ignore this question :)

[StaceyKoprince]

Yep - we (the test prep folk) all do our best to write good questions to mimic the real test but sometimes we fall short. I'd consider this one not such a great one to study.

[DCE]

Hi

Aren't the example above and the the question below working on the same rule ?

http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/og-verbal-review-sc-24-t879.html

The period when the great painted caves at Lascaux and Altamira were occupied by Upper Paleolithic people has been established by carbon-14 dating, but what is much more difficult to

determine are the reason for their decoration, the use to which primitive people put the caves, and the meaning of the magnificently depicted animals.

A) has been established by carbon 14 dating but what is much more difficult to determine are
B) has been established by carbon 14 dating but what is much more difficult to determine is

Regards,
DCE

[esledge]

Good job finding this one, DCE. This PR problem is analogous to OG Verbal Review SC #24.

Applying the OG logic to this PR question, the subject is "what is much more difficult to determine" (singular), so the verb choice must be the singular "is."

Therefore, "what is much more difficult to determine is A, B & C."

Inverting is misleading, because in reverse order, the subject would be the plural A, B, &C.

I have learned to be wary of inverting sentences with verbs of being. To put it in mathematical terms, is, are, were, was, etc. all behave like equal signs. While it is mathematically equivalent to say either (D = A, B, & C) or (A, B, & C = D), in a sentence the order matters!