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A majority of railway commuters

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apoorva.srivastva
 Post subject: A majority of railway commuters
 Post Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:11 am 
A majority of railway commuters reads or listening to music while traveling.

a.) reads or listening
b.) read or listening
c.) read or listens
d.) read or listen
e.) reads or listens

which should be correct d or e

" A majority" of "plural noun" should be followed by singular or plural verb

kindly help.
Apoorva
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RA
 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 1:40 pm 
Answer should be (D)

"Majority of railway commuters" is plural

Rule:
When the subject is a portion word (like majority, percent, fraction, some, all, none...) then the noun (object of preposition) decides whether to use a singular or plural verb.
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apoorva.srivastva
 Post subject: A majority of railway commuters reads or listening
 Post Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 5:19 am 
hi there,

but the answer is e.
this is a sentence from Manhattan Sentence Correction book... "A majority of railway commuters reads or listens to music while traveling.", is the right contruction

pretty much confused...is it becoz of the use if Article "A"

rgds,
Apoorva
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Guest
 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:03 am 
Interesting.

Here is an article you might want to read:
http://www.economist.com/research/style ... age=805687

The article gives the following rule for "majority"
If "majority" is used in a abstract sense the verb takes a singular form. If "majority" is used to denote the elements making up the majority then the verb should be plural.

This rule still makes me lean towards answer choice "D". It would be interesting to hear what the experts have to say.
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apoorva.srivastva
 Post subject: Tutors reply- A majority of Railway commuters from MSC 2003
 Post Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:45 am 
heyy hii,

thnxx for the link.

i just checked the sentence and the answer once again.
A majority of railway commuters sentence is from the 2003 MSC it says that A majority of railway commuters reads or listens is the correct construction.

I have the soft copy of MSC 2003 edition which claims it to be the right answer.

But when i checked their 2007 edition, this paricular sentence has been removed from the book.
I now feel as to watever u said is right.

Lets see, what the Tutors of Manhattan have to comment on this.

Regards,
Apoorva
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esledge
 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 6:44 pm 
Offline
ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 901
Location: St. Louis, MO
I believe this question is answered in the following thread. Good one!

http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/the ... t4227.html

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT
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