<p>So im doing this PR book, and one of the Quick quiz questions confuses me. </p>
<p>Restrictions on one of the committees that monitors corporate waste disposal were revoked, allowing the committee to levy fines on violators of the disposal laws. </p>
<p>The answer is “monitors” claiming that since committees is plural monitors should be as well. But isn’t the subject one? Like up there, I said one of the questions confuses me. Should it be confuse as well?</p>
<p>The answer is monitors because [on one] and [of the committees] are prepositions, leaving restrictions as the subject.</p>
<p>Restrictions that monitor…</p>
<p>nbafan, think about it like this:</p>
<p>one of the boys who play chess</p>
<p>one of the boys who plays chess</p>
<p>If ‘one’ were the subject, it would be one of the boys, who plays chess, …</p>
<p>RR- but the subject to that verb is not restrictions, its “committees” or “one”</p>
<p>dchow- for the chess example, the bottom one would be my pick. And if one were the subject:</p>
<p>One of the boys who plays chess is tall. </p>
<p>of the boys is a preposition. Plays describes one, the subject.</p>
<p>Am I wrong? If so, what am I missing?</p>
<p>Look at it this way:</p>
<p>One (of the committees that monitors corporate waste disposal)</p>
<p>It makes more sense. It’s the committees that monitor the waste disposal. “that monitors corporate waste disposal” qualifies “committees,” so “monitor” is correct. </p>
<p>It’s the difference between:</p>
<p>1) One of the boys (who plays chess, unlike the other boys)
AND
2) One of the boys (all of whom play chess)</p>
<p>In this case, the committees ALL monitor waste disposal, so it’s option 2. We are not picking a company that happens to monitor waste disposal, we are picking a company out from all the companies that monitor waste disposal.</p>
<p>Prepositional phrases are never the subject.
“On one” - if a prepostion precedes a word, it’s not the subject.
Read that rule in one of the Kaplan books - can’t remember which one, but it stuck with me (800 in writing!!!)
Hope that helps.
Joe</p>
<p>^ But that is kind of confusing. Because “One of the boys who play chess is tall.”</p>
<ul>
<li>The subject of play is boys.</li>
<li>The subject of is is one.</li>
</ul>
<p>So it’s not that “one” isn’t a subject at all, it’s just not the subject of “who play chess”</p>
<p>Think about it like this:</p>
<p>Of all the boys who play chess, one is tall.</p>
<p>Now, </p>
<p>One of the boys who play chess is tall.</p>
<p>They’re the same.</p>
<p>Here’s what Strunk and White have to say:</p>
<p>"A common blunder is the use of a singular verb form in a relative clause following ‘one of…’ or a similar expression when the relative is the subject.</p>
<p>Wrong: One of the ablest scientists who has attached this problem
Correct: One of the ablest scientists who have attacked this problem</p>
<p>Wrong: One of those people who is never ready on time
Correct: One of those people who are never ready on time"</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> why is English so confusing?</p>
<p>Wow. English is mad confusing. </p>
<p>Thanks for this help you three. I think it makes an inkling of sense now. </p>
<p>Baelor- But I dont understand why we can look at it that way. Since the whole sentence is </p>
<p>Restrictions on one of the committees that monitors corporate waste disposal were revoked</p>
<p>why should we separate on one if it’s part of the same prep phrase?</p>
<p>joe- “On one” - if a prepostion precedes a word, it’s not the subject" Would you mind clarifying that up a bit please?</p>
<p>dchow- Thanks, I undersand the chess example now. One is and boys play. cool. Do the words like “who”, “that” make a difference? Like. </p>
<p>One of those people who are never ready on time- correct
One of those people is never ready on time. - correct</p>
<p>So if there is a who, which, that, or w/e, the verb doesn’t follow the one?</p>
<p>Like this question from the Kaplan book:
The texture of the icings on the cakes is runny.</p>
<p>The subject is “texture” - it can’t be “icings” because the sentence reads “of the icings” - “of the icings” is what’s known as a prepostitional phrase.</p>
<p>It just occured to me - this is more of a case of "let’s take out the modifying phrase and conjugate the verb the right way:
Restrictions (on one of the committees) that monitors corporate waste disposal were revoked - </p>
<p>So, if you take out the ( ) part, you can hear what’s wrong with the sentence.</p>
<p>"Baelor- But I dont understand why we can look at it that way. "</p>
<p>Because it is one of the companies that monitor waste, not one of the companies, and then this particular one happens to monitor waste. ALL of them do, which means we have a plural subject.</p>
<p>joey- For that example, I get that the bare sentence is Texture is runny. But on the original sentence, it sound even more weird. Restrictions that monitors… Even though restrictions is not the subject for monitors, it still gets mixed up since I dont know the exact subject, and don’t understand why One is not. </p>
<p>baelor- How can you tell that they all monitor waste though? I still see one company monitoring it. If it was one company monitoring, how would the sentence go?</p>
<p>Hmmm…It’s restrictive. It is a necessary part of the sentence, otherwise it would be “, which monitors waste disposal,” blahblahblah. Because of that, we know that everything modifies “one.” So it’s “one…of the committees, all of which monitor waste disposal,” blahblahblah.</p>
<p>Restrictions WERE revoked?
what do these restrictions do?
they MONITOR corporate waste disposal</p>
<p>Mrprez- but why is committees called the subject in the answer explanation?</p>
<p>baelor- How would the original sentence have to be in order to keep monitors?</p>
<p>It would be something like this:</p>
<p>Restrictions on one of the committees, which monitors corporate waste disposal, were revoked, allowing the committee to levy fines on violators of the disposal laws. </p>
<p>The committee in question happens to monitor corporate waste. Alternatively, you could say “Restrictions on a committee that monitors…” That would be better.</p>
<p>I think RR119 summed it up pretty well:</p>
<p>The answer is monitors because [on one] and [of the committees] are prepositions, leaving restrictions as the subject.</p>
<p>Restrictions that monitor…</p>
<p>But why does it say committees being plural is the reason.</p>
<p>I think the book’s explanation is wrong! lol! Kind of half-assed. They need to go into more detail, which many of these books, in my experience, just don’t do!
sorry we can’t put this bad boy to bed already.</p>
<p>joe</p>
<p>BECAUSE, (bah!) committees is the thing to which “monitor” refers! What else would it be? It is not one of the (committees), it is one of the (committees that monitor)! It is a very specific group of committees, not just any. It is not one committee that monitors waste out of a group of many committees that do not all monitor waste. It is one committee out of many committees that ALL MONITOR WASTE. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM DOES. Committees is the subject of “monitors” because every single committee monitors! Each and every one of them!</p>
<p>If that were NOT the case, the sentence would be this:</p>
<p>“…one of the committees, which (coincidentally) monitors waste…”</p>
<p>I wanna thank you guys for sticking through this with me. lol</p>
<p>Thank you baelor, I think I get it now. But Im just saying to the people who are saying that restrictions is the verb for monitor.</p>