SAT WRITING QUESTION HELP

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<p>I found a question on past sat
One of the few marine mammals that makes use of tools are the Indian Ocean bottle nose dolphins, which uses sea sponges to stir sand on the ocean floor while hunting for prey.</p>

<p>Apparently the correct answer is one of the few marine mammals to make use of tools are*</p>

<p>Why is the original not correct?</p>

2

<p>This is a verb plurality question. </p>

<p>Rules you need:

  1. A verb belonging to singular subjects needs a “s” at the end. EXAMPLE: A bird flies.
    A verb belonging to singular subjects do not need a “s”. EXAMPLE: Two birds fly. </p>

<ol>
<li>A phrase starting with a preposition( words like of, to, for ) is a modifier and does not affect the plurality of the subject.
EXAMPLE: A bird with two wings flies. “with two wings” does not make a singular subject plural. </li>
</ol>

<p>Looking at the original sentence: </p>

<p>“One” is the subject. This is singular.
“of the few marine mammals” is a modifier pointing at “One”.
“that makes use of tools” is a modifier pointing at “One”, and not “mammals”. Notice how “makes” has a singular subject.</p>

<p>Therefor, the word “are” points at “one”, and does not match. </p>

<p>Also, I think the correct sentence should be:
One of the few marine mammals that makes use of tools IS the Indian Ocean bottle nose dolphin(NO S), which uses sea sponges to stir sand on the ocean floor while hunting for prey.</p>

<p>“which uses” has a “s”, so its owner must be singular. So it should be “dolphin” and not “dolpinS”</p>

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<p>@candy54321‌ hello candy54321, can you check if your sentence is correctly written and copied out of the test or if “dolphinS” should be replaced with “dolphin”. If the latter is the case, then i should have no problem explaining the question to you.
+) Supposing the latter is the case, then the error should be “are” since both dolphin and “one”, which “are” modifies, are singular nouns. “Are” should be changed into “is” to agree with the singular noun.
+) Supposing your sentence is correctly written, there are two errors in this sentence. The first is “one”. Since “one” modifies “dolphins”, “one” should be changed to “some” to agree with “dolphins”.
The second error is “makes” and this error can be explained and corrected the same way as “one” is corrected.
@dailylearning‌ i entirely agree with you on the way to correct the sentence; However, your saying that “one” is the subject is, according to my experience, wrong since “dolphins” is actually the subject of the sentence. The SAT just changes the sentence’s sequence.
Example: Among the few mammals to make use of tools ARE dolphinS. or Dolphins are among the few mammals to make use of tools.
@silverturtle‌ can you please verify my corrections and verify that one should be changed to “some of” to agree with “Dolphins”.</p>