I want to know what is wrong with this SC.
In my opinion, I think that B is the correct answer, but I do not know if "which" is correct.
For this reason, I would like to receive any kind of feedback from instructors od testakers.
Source: beatthegmat

Although she had been known as an effective legislator first in the Texas Senate and later in the United States House of Representatives, not until Barbara Jordan's participation in the hearings on the impeachment of President Richard Nixon in 1974 was she made a nationally recognized figure, as it was televised nationwide.

A. later in the United States House of Representatives, not until Barbara Jordan's
participation in the hearings on the impeachment of President Richard Nixon in
1974 was she made a nationally recognized figure, as it was
B. later in the United States House of Representatives, Barbara Jordan did not
become a nationally recognized figure until 1974, when she participated in the
hearings on the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, which were
C. later in the Untied States House of Representatives, it was not until 1974 that
Barbara Jordan became a nationally recognized figure, with her participation in
the hearings on the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, which was
D. then also later in the United States House of Representatives, not until 1974 did
Barbara Jordan become a nationally recognized figure, as she participated in the
hearings on the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, being
E. then also later in the United States House of Representatives, Barbara Jordan did
not become a nationally recognized figure until 1974, when she participated in the
hearings on the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, which was

"which" is fine in (b).

the gmat tends to write sentences in which "which" stands for the ELIGIBLE noun that's closest to the comma.
by "eligible", i mean that the noun has to AGREE IN TERMS OF SINGULAR/PLURAL with the FOLLOWING VERB.

here's an example:

the box of nails, which is on the counter, is to be used on this project.

in this case, "which" CANNOT refer to "nails", since the verb "is" is singular. therefore, the nearest eligible noun is "box (of nails)". so, "which" unambiguously stands for that.

in our observation, the gmat has been VERY good about this.
whenever i've seen a "which" that refers to "X + preposition + Y" rather than just Y, it has ALWAYS been the case that X was singular and Y was plural (or X was plural and Y was singular), and the verb had a form that matched X and didn't match Y.

hope that helps.

--

in this sentence, "which were..." is plural and so can't refer to nixon. therefore it must refer to the hearings, so we're good.

".................in our observation, the gmat has been VERY good about this.
whenever i've seen a "which" that refers to "X + preposition + Y" rather than just Y, it has ALWAYS been the case that X was singular and Y was plural (or X was plural and Y was singular), and the verb had a form that matched X and didn't match Y."

I am not sure if i agree with the above statement that all the GMAT questions fit the aforementioned pattern. If you look at the question present at
http://www.beatthegmat.com/publishing-d ... 24630.html , the choice D says the following:

D. in its share, from 6 percent to 10 percent, of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges .

Clearly there is a confusion as to whether the relative pronoun 'which' refers to the noun 'country' or to the noun-phrase 'the $21 billion book market in the country' .

Also, in the following sentence, which I made up, is there a way to nail down the antecedent of 'which' ? Is the antecedent 'Afghanisthan' or the 5 billion dollar opium market in Afghanisthan

The 5 billion dollar opium market in Afganisthan, which is causing nightmares to politicians in Wahington D.C., is the focus of the discussions between the diplomats

BTW i think the rules that govern the antecedent of the relative pronoun 'which' also govern the rules for other relative pronouns like 'that' etc.

Experts .. what do you think

huh?
on that problem, choice (d) is incorrect.
why would you look to an incorrect answer for confirmation of a rule?



in that sentence, "which" would still default to "afghanistan" (which is grammatically ok - it's singular and it's not a person, so is a grammatical match for "which is").

it's easy to revise that particular sentence, though --> afghanistan's $5 billion opium market, which is...

--

by the way, if you have an official problem on which the CORRECT answer contradicts these findings, we'd love to see it.

incorrect answers are definitely not a reliable source of information, since they're ... incorrect.

Hi Ron
Thank you for the many useful replies you have provided.

On the topic of finding the antecedent of relative pronouns, i have been somewhat puzzled by it as well. I wonder if you could kindly shed some more light on this.

Specifically i wonder how does one methodically determine the antecedent of a relative pronoun. Your previous post seem to suggest that we should look at the verb that appears after the relative pronoun to determine the elligible antecedent.
i.e. "The $5bil opium market in Afganisthan which is ..." - you suggest "which" refers to "Afganisthan" since "which is" is used.
So if "The $5bil opium and cocaine markets in Afganisthan which are..." - Would you argue that "markets" is now the antecedent?

If this is the case, then aren't we really saying the verb controls the subject when it ought to be the subject controlling the verb?

I am really confused by this commonly spoken sentence found in Kaplan Verbal Foundation - identify the correct antecd. and verb:
"His taste in music is one of the things about him that (drive/drives) me crazy" Answer: drive.
We all say this all time correctly all the time but ultimately i dun know why we say drive and not drives?
My thougths were:
1) "that" = relative pronoun.
2) "about him" = preposition phrase so cannot be antecedent subj
3) "of the things" = Preposition phrase so not antecedent
4) "one" = must be the antecedent
Clearly i am wrong, but where have i gone wrong?
I cannot employ your method to determine the antecedent of the relative pronoun "that" since i have to define the verb "drive or drives"

The next question sentence that follows in the book is
" His taste in music is the one thing about him that (drives/drive) me crazy" Ans: drives
My thougths were:
1) "that" = relative pronoun.
2) "about him" = preposition phrase so cannot be antecedent subj
3) "one thing" = must be the antecedent
Is my analysis correct here?

Many thanks in anticipation
Al

Al,
regarding your following comments:
---------------------------------------------------------
The next question sentence that follows in the book is
" His taste in music is the one thing about him that (drives/drive) me crazy" Ans: drives
My thougths were:
1) "that" = relative pronoun.
2) "about him" = preposition phrase so cannot be antecedent subj
3) "one thing" = must be the antecedent
Is my analysis correct here?

Many thanks in anticipation
Al
--------------------------------------------------------

IN this situation, the Object of the preposition serves as the SUBJECT of the RELATIVE CLAUSE". so, what does this mean?

1. His taste in music is the one of the things about him that (drives/drive) me crazy. Relative clause starts with "that..." So, we need to find the subject. "music is one OF [prep] the "things". Here "things" is the object of the preposition "OF" and this serves as the subject of the rel. clause. So, we need "DRIVE". Consider it this way-> There are many things that DRIVE me crazy; his taste in music IS ONE of THOSE many Things.

try this one now - One of the items that [are/is] placed on the table [is/are] red. Do u see it? There are many items that are placed on the table; one of them is red.

Hope it helps.....BTW,,RON is absolutely amazing. I suggest you join THU with RON just be become a better human being!!

Hi Rohit

Thank you for ur reply.

I am afriad that i am still no wiser.

Your question statement:
"One of the items that (is/are) placed on the table (is/are) red"

My assessment:
"One of the items IS red" - bcos "of the items" is preposition, so "one" is subject.

".... items that ARE placed on ..." - "that" is relative pronoun and refers to the nearest noun "items".

According to your statement, the relative pronoun "that" from my example below would refer to "him" as per your example of "One of the items that ARE placed on the table..."

So, unfortunately, this still does not resolve my original question:
Where have i gone wrong in my below assessment?

"His taste in music is one of the things about him that (drive/drives) me crazy" Correct answer: drive.
My thougths were:
1) "that" = relative pronoun.
2) "about him" = preposition phrase so cannot be antecedent subj
3) "of the things" = Preposition phrase so not antecedent
4) "one" = must be the antecedent
Clearly i am wrong, but where have i gone wrong?

This is where you have gone wrong. :) It is not the case that a modifier cannot refer to the noun in a prepositional phrase. You might be confusing this with the rule that the noun in a prepositional phrase cannot be the main subject of the sentence.

When you have a modifier, however, that does contain a conjugated verb BUT that verb is not the MAIN verb of the sentence, then that verb CAN refer to the noun in a prepositional phrase.

For example:

That cat is one of the cats that hunt at night.

The main noun is "the cat" and the main verb is "is." "that hunt at night" is a modifier. When the sentence talks about who is (or who are) hunting at night, is it talking about just one cat hunting at night, or is it saying that all of the cats hunt at night?

In this case, "hunt" is plural, so we know that the sentence is trying to say that all of the cats hunt at night, not just the one cat who is the subject of the sentence.

What if I wanted to say that only that one cat hunts at night? I might say something like:

That cat is the only one of the cats that hunts at night. Now, "hunts" is singular, so I know it can't refer to the plural "cats." It must refer to the single "cat" that is the subject of the sentence.

So, to summarize: the verb in a modifier CAN refer to a noun that is part of a prepositional phrase. It's only the MAIN verb that cannot refer to a noun that is part of a prepositional phrase.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Posted for the original poster (who's having tech problems):

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

So, the issue we're discussing here is a meaning issue. You only know what verb to use if you know beyond a doubt what the intended meaning is. (And, therefore, this is something where you'd either keep the meaning of the original sentence or the test just wouldn't ask you to make this decision in the first place. But on the test you don't have to somehow decide yourself what the correct meaning should be.)

"His taste in music is one of the things about him that (drive/drives) me crazy"

In this sentence, is the intent to talk about ONE thing that drives me crazy? Or is the intent to mention that there are multiple thingS that drive me crazy? On the real test, I would know based upon what they did in the origianl sentence.

In the real world, I would say that we're trying to talk about multiple things - otherwise, why am I bringing up the things at all? I could just say his taste in music drives me crazy. If I still wanted to bring up other things but say that ONLY his taste in music is driving me crazy, I would want to indicate that contrast. But this is all a discussion of what I would think in the real world, not on the test.

If you really want to know for the real world, then generally:
If you want to say there are many things that drive you crazy, then you say "this is one of the <things that drive me crazy> about him."
If you want to say that this is the only thing he does that drives you crazy, but you still want to mention that he does other things (that don't drive you crazy), then you say "this is the one <THING> out of all the things he does <that drives me crazy>."

Notice the difference in language there - in the second, I'm making very clear with my language that the "one thing" is in a different category than all of the other things, while in the first sentence, the one thing is part of the broader category of things, so I don't need to split the one thing out so much.

Ditto the cat sentence.

If you're really worried about / trying to study for the test, though: you maintain the original meaning unless there's something logically impossible about that original meaning. So just look for the original meaning.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Hi Ron,

Could you clear something up for me? The following thread has your comments on the use of which as well, but it seems to differ from the advice stated above. I could very well be misunderstanding this concept. Please help.

sc-in-attempting-to-solve-the-problems-caused-by-a-lowering-t7987.html?hilit=north%20sea

For the answer to A you say that "approaches" is plural so therefore "includes" is wrong because it is singular. However, since the the construction is also X + preposition + Y "includes" matches with "variety". How come that doesn't work?

Thanks for your time.

ah, no
in this kind of context, "a variety of X" (and some other, similar constructions, such as "a number of X") is basically the same as "several X", and is plural.