With a new park, stadium, and entertainment complex along the Delaware River, Trenton, New Jersey, is but one of a large number of communities that is looking to use its waterfront as a way for it to improve the quality of urban life and attract new businesses.

A) is looking to use its waterfront as a way for it to improve the quality of urban life and attract
B) is looking at using its waterfront to improve the quality of urban life and attract
C) are looking to use their waterfronts to improve the quality of urban life and attract
D) are looking to use its waterfront as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attracting
E) are looking at using their waterfronts as a way of improving the quality of urban life and attract.

I put B. Answer is C. Why is it a plural noun!? "But one" seemed to indicate a singular noun.

The pronoun THAT refers to the plural noun communities. So the verb following THAT must be plural.

This criterion narrows the choices down to C and E. 'To use' is considered more appropriate than the gerund form 'Using' on the GMAT.

Hence the answer is C.

Thank you for your help.

In response to your explanation, is the infinitive "to X" always more acceptable than "X'ing"?

Hi. Though it is not a definitive grammatical principle, sentences with infinitive forms are often less awkward and wordy than those with the -ing (progressive forms). In this particular case, not only is "looking at" in choice E nonsensical, as to look at implies visual skills rather than logical considerations, but also the verbs using and attract are not parallel. Answer choice C, the credited response, correctly employs the parallel verbs improve and attract.

Hope that helps
-dan

thanks dan! makes a perfect sense!

Hi Ron!!
Why cannot "that" refer to Trenton? How do you figure out the verb that indicates the plural noun(communities)?

In terms of meaning, I think that "is" and "are" in the sentence both make sense but have subtal difference in meaning.

Please kindly correct me if I were wrong. Thank you in advance.

no.

there's a clear context here: namely, “a large number of communities” are trying to do the same thing that trenton is doing. trenton is only one of those communities.

if you try to use the singular verb, you get a context in which only trenton, and not the rest of the communities, is described as attempting to revitalize its waterfront. that doesn't work here: if that's the context, then you are left with a sentence that mentions “a large number of communities” for absolutely no reason whatsoever -- in other words, a sentence that doesn't make sense.

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Thank you, Ron!! You rock!!
I think I missed the most important part "a large number of communities." I should be more careful!!

:)

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Hi Ron,
Though i seem to understnd the explanation given by you.
I have a question here :
Can this sentence also mean the same as:"One of the communities" is trying to do somethng.
If it does mean so then what is the problem in using singular is rather than using plural are?
As per the explanation you also mentioned that if the problem just had to consider Trenton the single community the reference to all the other communities is absolutely futile.But can it not mean that we are selecting one specific community from a group of communities sharing the same principles and go on to explain furthur characteristics about the singular entity?
M Confused

no, in this case it is clear that the "communities" are trying to do something, not that "one of the communities" is trying to do something..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

I treated "one" like a SANAM pronoun. Since its "Of-phrase" is plural, I decided to go ahead with "are" in the split. Is this approach correct?

Hi Ron,

I am still confused with this SC question

I chose A

I would like to ask you three things:

A) whenever we come across a SC question in which the sentence construction is A of B, A is often the subject. why is this rule exception to it.

B) The meaning difference you have suggested above is subtle. I don't anything wrong in the meaning. I read it 10times. I feel that with "is" it states that one of the large communities is trying it

C) Isn't the use of work "but" after New Jersey unnecessary and awkard. Is the word but add anything to the meaning of the sentence

Regards

Dheeraj

Not sure how you used the SANAM principle to justify the is/are split. It depends on the rest of the sentence:

One of the dogs is red. (one = subject)
Fido is one of the dogs that are red. (one = object; that are red = modifier for the word dogs)

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Joe Lucero
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

A) It's a subtle point, but I'm going to use the same example I listed above:

One of the dogs is red. (one = subject)
Fido is one of the dogs that are red. (one = object; that are red = modifier for the word dogs)

This is a tricky construction where we are saying that Trenton is one of a large number of communities. What type of communities? Communities that ARE looking to X.

B) The meaning may be subtle, but it's important. If you don't get the meaning or couldn't quickly understand which meaning is correct, than look for grammar issues in the moment and learn the proper meaning and why it's correct afterwards... like you're doing now by using the forums.

C) Maybe, but as Ron says (with much more capitalized and bolded letters): don't question the correct answer:

Fido is one dog.
Fido is but one of many dogs.

Again, it's a subtle and lesser-used construction, but it's proper English.

_________________
Joe Lucero
Manhattan GMAT Instructor