GMAT GMAT - Graduate Management Admission Verbal: Sentence Correction 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which version of the underlined portion is grammatically correct: 'The committee [have reached their / has reached its] decision unanimously'?
- has reached its (Correct answer)
- have reached their
- has reached their
- have reached its
Correct answer: has reached its
In American English, collective nouns like 'committee' take singular verbs and singular pronouns.
Question 2: Identify the error: 'Neither the manager nor the employees was informed about the restructuring plan.'
- 'was' should be 'were' (Correct answer)
- 'Neither' should be 'Either'
- 'informed' should be 'informing'
- No error exists
Correct answer: 'was' should be 'were'
With 'neither…nor,' the verb agrees with the subject closest to it; since 'employees' is plural, the verb must be 'were.'
Question 3: Which revision corrects the dangling modifier: 'Running quickly down the hall, the briefcase was forgotten by the executive'?
- Running quickly down the hall, the executive forgot the briefcase. (Correct answer)
- The briefcase, running quickly down the hall, was forgotten.
- The executive's briefcase was running quickly down the hall.
- Running quickly, the briefcase was forgotten by the executive.
Correct answer: Running quickly down the hall, the executive forgot the briefcase.
A participial phrase must logically modify the sentence's subject; 'the executive' must be the subject so the phrase correctly describes who was running.
Question 4: Which version maintains proper parallel structure: 'The new policy requires ___'?
- cutting costs, increasing efficiency, and raising revenue (Correct answer)
- to cut costs, increasing efficiency, and that revenue be raised
- cutting costs, to increase efficiency, and revenue raised
- cut costs, efficiency increased, and raising revenue
Correct answer: cutting costs, increasing efficiency, and raising revenue
Parallel structure requires all items in a series to use the same grammatical form; here all three must be gerunds (-ing forms).
Question 5: Which sentence correctly uses the idiom involving 'different'?
- The outcome was different from what the analysts predicted. (Correct answer)
- The outcome was different than what the analysts predicted.
- The outcome was different to what the analysts predicted.
- The outcome was differently from what the analysts predicted.
Correct answer: The outcome was different from what the analysts predicted.
Standard American English requires 'different from' when followed by a noun or noun clause.
Question 6: Identify the pronoun ambiguity: 'The supervisor told the analyst that he needed to revise the report.'
- 'he' is ambiguous—it could refer to the supervisor or the analyst. (Correct answer)
- 'the report' lacks a clear antecedent.
- 'told' should be 'said to.'
- There is no error in the sentence.
Correct answer: 'he' is ambiguous—it could refer to the supervisor or the analyst.
When two males are mentioned, a pronoun that could refer to either creates ambiguity that must be resolved by restructuring the sentence.
GMAT GMAT - Graduate Management Admission Verbal: Sentence Correction 1
Which version of the underlined portion is grammatically correct: 'The committee [have reached their / has reached its] decision unanimously'?