<p>Identify the error:
Absent from (A) the speech were(B) any mention of the students and laboratory technicians upon whose (C) contributions the chemist had depended heavily (D). </p>
<p>The answer is B, were.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with this?</p>
<p>The speech is single and were is plural. A singular was must be used.</p>
<p>Were should be “was” not because speech is singular but because “mention” is singular and it is mention that is the actual subject of the sentence that belongs to the verb (i.e., even if it said “absent from the speeches” the verb would still be was.</p>