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GATE 2020 EE GA Q.1: solution and answer

GATE 2020 · EEGA Q.1 · 1 mark · MCQ

This book, including all its chapters, ______ interesting. The students as well as the instructor ______ in agreement about it.

  1. (A)

    is, was

  2. (B)

    are, are

  3. (C)

    is, are

  4. (D)

    were, was

See the question in the paper
GATE 2020 EE GA question 1Tap to open full size

Answer and solution

ANSWER

The answer is (C) is, are. \"This book\" is singular, so it takes \"is\". \"The students\" is plural, and \"as well as the instructor\" does not change that, so it takes \"are\".

Official answer: CSource: Official answer key, GATE 2020 EE (IIT Delhi)

  1. Blank 1: find the real subject. The subject is "This book", which is singular. The phrase "including all its chapters" sits between commas. It is a parenthetical add-on and does not change the number of the subject.

  2. Subject-verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb, so blank 1 is is. That rules out (B) "are" and (D) "were", which are both plural forms.

  3. Blank 2: the "as well as" rule. In "A as well as B", the verb agrees with A, the noun before "as well as". "As well as the instructor" is an add-on phrase, like "along with" or "together with". It does not create a compound subject the way "and" does.

  4. Here A is "The students", which is plural, so the verb must be plural: are. The present tense also matches the first sentence ("is interesting").

  5. Check (A): "was" is singular, which does not agree with "The students", and it is past tense, which clashes with "is" in the first sentence. Rejected.

  6. That leaves "is, are", which is option (C).

KEY IDEA

The verb agrees with the head subject. Phrases set off by commas ("including all its chapters") and add-on phrases ("as well as", "along with", "together with") do not change the subject's number. Only "and" makes a compound, plural subject.

WATCH OUT FOR

Matching the verb to the nearest noun. That gives "are" after "chapters" (plural) or "was" after "the instructor" (singular). Another mistake is treating "as well as" like "and". Here that happens to give the same plural verb, but with a singular first noun it would give the wrong one (e.g. "The instructor as well as the students IS ...").

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