GRAMMAR POINT SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

1. The indefinite pronouns anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody are ALWAYS singular and, therefore, require singular verbs. Everyone has done his or her homework. Somebody has left her purse. Some indefinite pronouns such as all, some are singular or plural DEPENDING on what they're referring to. (Is the thing referred to countable or not?) Be careful choosing a verb to accompany such pronouns. Some of the beads are missing. Some of the water is gone. On the other hand, there is one indefinite pronoun, none , that can be either singular or plural; it often doesn't matter whether you use a singular or a plural verb unless something else in the sentence determines its number. None of you claims responsibility for this incident? None of the students have done their homework. 2. Each is often followed by a prepositional phrase ending in a plural word (Each of the cars), thus confusing the verb choice. Each is ALWAYS singular and requires a singular verb. Each of the students is responsible for doing his or her work in the library. 3. Phrases such as together with, as well as, and along with are not the same as and. The phrase introduced by as well as or along with will modify the earlier word, but it does not compound the subjects (as the word and would do). The mayor as well as his brothers is going to prison. The mayor and his brothers are going to jail. 4. The pronouns neither and either are singular and require singular verbs even though they seem to be referring, in a sense, to two things. Neither of the two traffic lights is working. Which shirt do you want for Christmas? - Either is fine with me.

5. The conjunction or does not conjoin (as and does): when nor or or is used the subject closer to the verb determines the number of the verb. Whether the subject comes before or after the verb doesn't matter; the proximity determines the number. Either my father or my brothers are going to sell the house. Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the house. Are either my brothers or my father responsible? Is either my father or my brothers responsible? 6. The words there and here are NEVER subjects. There are two reasons for this. There is no reason for this. Here are two apples. With these constructions (called expletive constructions), the subject follows the verb but still determines the number of the verb. 7. Sometimes modifiers will get between a subject and its verb, but these modifiers must not confuse the agreement between the subject and its verb. The mayor, who has been convicted along with his four brothers on four counts of various crimes but who also seems to have several political lives, is finally going to jail. 8. Sometimes nouns take weird forms and can fool us into thinking they're plural when they're really singular and vice-versa. Words such as glasses, pants, pliers, and scissors are regarded as plural (and require plural verbs) unless they're preceded the phrase pair of (in which case the word pair becomes the subject). My glasses were on the bed. My pants were torn. A pair of plaid trousers is in the closet. 9. Some words end in -s and appear to be plural but are really singular and require singular verbs. The news from the front is bad. Measles is a dangerous disease for pregnant women. On the other hand, some words ending in -s refer to a single thing but are nonetheless plural and require a plural verb. My assets were wiped out in the depression.

The average worker's earnings have gone up dramatically. Our thanks go to the workers who supported the union. The names of sports teams that do not end in "s" will take a plural verb: The Miami Heat have been looking The Connecticut Sun are hoping that new talent 10. Fractional expressions such as half of, a part of, a percentage of, a majority of are sometimes singular and sometimes plural, depending on the meaning. Sums and products of mathematical processes are expressed as singular and require singular verbs. The expression "more than one" takes a singular verb More than one student has tried this. A large percentage of the older population is voting against her. Two-fifths of the troops were lost in the battle. Two-fifths of the vineyard was destroyed by fire. Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the policy. Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing the policy. Two and two is four. Four times four divided by two is eight. 11. If your sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and one is plural, the other singular, the verb should agree with the positive subject. The department members but not the chair have decided not to teach on Valentine's Day. It is not the faculty members but the president who decides this issue. It was the speaker, not his ideas, that has provoked the students to riot.

Practice 1: Choose the right answer for each question

1. Either the physicians in this hospital or the chief administrator ____ going to have to make a decision. A. is B. are 2. ______ my boss or my sisters in the union going to win this grievance? A. Is B. Are 3. Some of the votes __________to have been miscounted. A. seem B. seems 4. The tornadoes that tear through this county every spring _____ more than just a nuisance. A. are B. is 5. Everyone selected to serve on this jury _____ to be willing to give up a lot of time. A. have B. has 6. Kara Wolters, together with her

teammates, _________ a formidable opponent on the basketball court. A. presents B. present 7. He seems to forget that there

__________things to be done before he can graduate. A. are B. is 8. There _______ to be some people left in that town after yesterday's flood. A. have B. has 9. Some of the grain __________to be contaminated. A. appear B. appears 10. Three-quarters of the students

__________against the tuition hike. A. is B. are

11. Three-quarters of the student body __________against the tuition hike. A. is B. are 12. A high percentage of the population _________ voting for the new school. A. is B. are 13. A high percentage of the people _________ voting for the new school. A. was B. were 14. Carlos is the only one of those students who __________lived up to the potential described in the yearbook. has have 15. The International Club, as well as the Choral Society and the Rowing Club,

B. is 17. Not only the students but also their instructor ________ been called to the principal's office. A. have B. has 18. Most of the milk _____ gone bad. Six gallons of milk _______ still in the refrigerator. A. has ---- are B. have ---- is 19. Each and every student and instructor in this building __________for a new facility by next year. A. hope B. hopes 20. The students and instructors each ________for a new facility by next year. A. hopes B. hope 21. Rice and beans, my favorite dish, __________me of my native Puerto Rico. A. remind

__________to submit a new constitution. A. need B. needs 16. One of my best friends

B. reminds

_____________an extra on Seinfeld this week. A. are

22.

large

number

of

voters

still

28.

Neither

of

my

two

suitcases

___________along straight-party lines. A. votes B. vote 23. Four years _______ a long time to spend away from your friends and family. A. are B. is 24. Politics __________sometimes a dirty business. A. are B. is 25. To an outsider, the economics of this country ________ to be in disarray. A. seem B. seems 26. The piano as well as the pipe organ ____________ to be tuned for the big concert. A. has B. have 27. The mayor together with his two brothers ____________ going to be indicted for accepting bribes. A. are B. is

____________ adequate for this trip. A. is B. are 29. There ____________ a list of committee members on the head-table. A. are B. is 30. Everybody in the class ____________ done the homework well in advance. A. has B. have 31. The jury ____________ their seats in the courtroom. A. take B. takes 32. Neither the teacher nor the students ____________ to understand this assignment. A. seem B. seems 33. ____________ either my father or my brothers made a down-payment on the house? A. has B. have

34. Hartford is one of those cities that ____________ working hard to reclaim a riverfront. A. is B. are 35. Some of the grain ____________ gone bad. A. have B. has 36. John or his brother ____________ going to be responsible for this. A. are B. is

37. A few of the students ____________ doing so well they can skip the next course. A. are B. is 38. Either the Committee on Course Design or the Committee on College Operations ____________ these matters. A. decide B. decides 39. One of my instructors ____________ written a letter of recommendation for me. A. have B. has

Practice 2: Choose the correct answer for each question

Soccer or football (or foosball or futbol), as it is called by the rest of the world outside the United States 1.__________(is / are) surely the most popular sport in the world. Every four years, the world championship of soccer, the World Cup, 2.__________(is / are) watched by literally billions all over the world, beating out the United States professional football's Super bowl by far. It is estimated that 1.7 billion television viewers watched the World Cup final between France and Brazil in July of 1998. And it is also a genuine world championship, involving teams from 32 countries in the final rounds, unlike the much more parochial and misnamed World Series in American baseball (that 3.__________(do not / does not) even involve Japan or Cuba, two baseball hotbeds). But although soccer has become an important sport in the American sports scene, it will never make inroads into the hearts and markets of American sports the way that football, basketball, hockey, baseball, and even tennis and golf 4.__________(have / has) done. There are many reasons for this. Recently the New England Revolution beat the Tampa Bay Mutiny in a game played during a horrid rainstorm. Nearly 5000 fans showed up, which 5.__________(show / shows) that soccer is, indeed, popular in the United States. However, the story of the game 6.__________(was / were) buried near the back of the newspaper's sports section, and there 7.__________(was / were) certainly no television coverage. In fact, the biggest reason for soccer's failure as a mass appeal sport in the United States is that it doesn't conform easily to the demands of television. Basketball succeeds enormously in America because it regularly 8.__________(schedules / schedule) what it calls "television time-outs" as well as the time-outs that the teams themselves call to re-group, not to mention half-times and, on the professional level, quarter breaks. Those time-outs in the action 9.__________(is / are) ideally made for television commercials. And television coverage is the lifeblood of American sports. College basketball 10.__________(lives / live) for a game scheduled on CBS or ESPN (highly recruited high school players are more likely to go to a team that regularly gets national television exposure), and we could even say that television coverage 11.__________(has / have) dictated the pace and feel of American football. Anyone who 12.__________(has / have) attended a live football game knows how commercial time-outs 13.__________(slows / slow) the game and sometimes, at its most exciting moments, 14.__________(disrupts / disrupt) the flow of events. There is no serious objection, however, because without television, football knows that it simply wouldn't remain in the homes and hearts of Americans. Also, without those advertising dollars, the teams couldn't afford the sky-high salaries of their high-priced superstars.

Soccer, on the other hand, except for its half-time break, has no time-outs; except for half-time, it is constant run, run, run, run, back and forth, back and forth, relentlessly, with only a few seconds of relaxation when a goal is scored, and that can happen seldom, sometimes never. The best that commercial television coverage can hope for is an injury time-out, and in soccer that 15.__________(happens / happen) only with decapitation or disembowelment. Second, Americans love their violence, and soccer doesn't deliver on this score the way that American football and hockey 16.__________(does / do) . There are brief moments, spurts of violence, yes, but fans can't expect the full-time menu of bone-crushing carnage that American football and hockey can deliver minute after minute, game after game. In soccer, players are actually singled out and warned shamed, with embarrassingly silly "yellow cards," for acts of violence and duplicity that would be smiled at in most American sports other than tennis and golf. Third, it is just too difficult to score in soccer. America 17.__________(loves / love) its football games with scores like 49 to 35 and a professional basketball game with scores below 100 18.__________(is / are) regarded as a defensive bore. In soccer, on the other hand, scores like 2 to 1, even 1 to 0, 19.__________(is / are) commonplace and apparently desirable; games scoreless at the end of regulation time happen all the time. (In the 515 games played in the final phase in the history of the World Cup games through 1994, only 1584 goals 20.__________(was / were) scored. That's three a game!) And if there 21.__________(is / are) no resolution at the end of overtime, the teams resort to a shoot-out that 22.__________(has / have) more to do with luck than with real soccer skills. Worse yet, it is possible for a team to dominate in terms of sheer talent and "shots-on-goal" and still lose the game by virtue of a momentary lapse in defensive attention, a stroke of bad luck, and the opponent's break-away goal. Things like that can happen, too, in baseball, but the problem somehow 23.__________(evens / even) out over baseball's very long season of daily games. In soccer, it just isn't fair. Soccer authorities should consider making the goal smaller and doing away with the goalie to make scoring easier. And the business of starting over after each goal, in the middle of the field, 24.__________(has / have) to be reconsidered. It's too much like the center-jump after each goal in the basketball game of yesteryear. It 25.__________(seems / seem) unlikely that Americans will ever fully comprehend or appreciate a sport in which players are not allowed to use their arms and hands. Although the footwork of soccer players 26.__________(is / are) a magnificent skill to behold, most American fans are perplexed by straitjacketed soccer players' inability and unwillingness to "pick up the darn ball and run with it!" The

inability to use substitutes (unless the players to be substituted for are lying dead or maimed on the field of play) 27.__________(is / are) also bewildering to Americans, who glorify the "sixth man" in basketball and a baseball game in which virtually the entire roster (including an otherwise unemployable old man called "the designated hitter") 28.__________(is / are) deployed on the field at one time or another. Finally, the field in soccer is enormous. Considerably larger than the American football field, the soccer field could contain at least a dozen basketball courts. Americans like their action condensed, in a small field of vision ten enormous sweaty people bouncing off one another and moving rapidly through a space the size of a medium-sized bedroom, twenty-two even larger people in bulky uniforms converging on a small, oddly shaped ball. In soccer, on the other hand, there 29.__________(is / are) a premium on "spreading out," not infringing upon the force field occupied by a team-mate, so that fancy foot-passing is possible. This spreading out across the vast meadow of the soccer playing field 30.__________(does / do) not lend itself, again, to close get-down-and-dirty television scrutiny. Soccer is a great sport and it certainly 31.__________(deserves / deserve) the increased attention and popularity it is getting on all levels. But primarily, again, because it does not lend itself to television it will never make it big in the United States the way these other sports 32.__________(has / have) , not until it 33.__________(changes / change) some of its fundamental strategies.

READING
(5 minutes)

Reading Comprehension Quiz

(2 minutes / question) 1. According to the article, an endangered species is one that: A. is already extinct in some parts of the world B. is extremely dangerous to humans C. will likely die out in its natural surroundings D. is threatened by members of the ESA 2. What poses the greatest threat to polar bears today? A. over hunting B. climate change C. polluted water D. politicians 3. What major change has occurred in the polar bear's natural habitat? A. The air temperature has become much colder. B. The ice has become extremely polluted. C. The amount of sea ice has drastically reduced. D. The land has disappeared altogether. B. how long it will be until populations are extinct C. whether or not man has any impact on the environment D. where humans should build in the Arctic 6. Why is it so important for endangered animals to get on a formal list? A. More will be charged for hunting them. B. More funds become available for recovery efforts. C. People vote for different leaders. D. Agencies can remove animals from natural habitats. 5. According to the World Wildlife Fund polar bear studies help researchers determine. A. the overall health of the Arctic 4. What type of conservation efforts are people generally interested in? A. saving insects and birds B. protecting large animals like bears C. reforestation projects D. preserving animals that human eats

LISTENING SPELLING EXERCISES

1. Fill in the blanks below. Example: Nicholas: Word 1: ____________________ Word 3: ____________________ Word 5: ____________________ Word 7: ____________________ Word 9: ____________________ 2. Fill in the blanks below: Number 1:__________________ Number 3:__________________ Number 5:__________________ Number 7:__________________ Number 9:__________________ Number 2:_____________________ Number 4:_____________________ Number 6: ____________________ Number 8:_____________________ Number 10:____________________ Word 2: _______________________ Word 4: _______________________ Word 6: ______________________ Word 8: _______________________ Word 10: ______________________