Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room were

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that the source of the anger was the action of repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Parallelism

• Any elements joined by a conjunction (“and” in this sentence) must be parallel.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the plural verb “were” to refer to the singular noun “anger”. Further, Option A redundantly uses both the adverb “repeatedly” and the synonymous phrase “over and over again” to modify the verb phrase “raising the issue”.

B: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the singular verb “was” to refer to the singular noun “anger”. Further, Option C correctly uses the construction “for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds” to modify the noun “anger”, conveying the intended meaning - that the source of the anger was the action of repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal. Additionally, Option B maintains parallelism between "raising the issue" and "preventing the raw wounds...heal".

C: Trap. This answer choice incorrectly uses the plural verb “were” to refer to the singular noun “anger”.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “anger about the issue, which was raised over and over, and preventing the wounds”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that the source of the “anger” was the “issue” and the separate action of preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal; the intended meaning of the sentence is that the source of the anger was the action of repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal. Besides, this answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between “anger” and “preventing the wounds...healing”; please remember, any elements joined by a conjunction (“and” in this sentence) must be parallel.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the plural verb “were” to refer to the singular noun “anger". Further, Option E alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “anger about the issue, which was raised repeatedly, and preventing the raw wounds”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that the source of the “anger” was the “issue” and the separate action of preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal; the intended meaning of the sentence is that the source of the anger was the action of repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal. Besides, this answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between “anger” and “preventing the raw wounds...heal”; please remember, any elements joined by a conjunction (“and” in this sentence) must be parallel.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Ans is B
first we see a 3/2 split.

A, C and E are wrong because only one instance of emotion is cited thus 'were' is out.

Down to B and D,
D is too wordy.
B is clear and concise.

B for singular use

A, C and E can be eliminated because of the use of 'were'
D - not angry about the issue, but about having the issue raised over and over again.

Not A, C, E - Must be "was" as anger is the only emotion in the sentence.

D - Issues with ||ism.

I say B.

These were the notes i went through on this question

36. Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal.

(A) were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal - see E
(B) was anger for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal

anger for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing .... shows parallelism. Additionally, the original meaning of the sentence conveyed that the people in the negotiating room were angry over an issue being repeatedly raised. D changes the meaning of the sentence to make the anger about the issue.

(C) were anger over repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin healing - see E
(D) was anger about the issue, which was raised over and over, and preventing the wounds from earlier battles, still raw, to begin healing

if you rephrase this, the sentence reads was anger about the issue .... and preventing the wounds from earlier battles.... to begin healing

(E) were anger about the issue, which was raised repeatedly, and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin to heal - Think of it as saying one of the emotions on display was anger

Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal.

(A) were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal
(B) was anger for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal
(C) were anger over repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin healing
(D) was anger about the issue, which was raised over and over, and preventing the wounds from earlier battles, still raw, to begin healing
(E) were anger about the issue, which was raised repeatedly, and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin to heal

I am stuggling to find the subject in these type of sentences.Can some1 help me in identifying subject in these type of sentences

The best way to tackle such questions is to find the idea that is being expressed.
The logic of the sentence is that among the emotions WAS anger. How did I deduce the singular verb here? Its simple- just look at the parallelism marker here and you will notice that two things are being expressed about one single entity, anger. Hence the verb required is singular.
Next, the two phrases on either side of "and" must be parallel.
Therefore the sentence becomes:
Among the emotions on display in negotiating room was Anger for repeatedly
1)raising the issue
2)preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles.

hope that helps.

Please read the sentence as:
Anger was among the emotions on display in the negotiating room for (1) repeatedly raising the issue and (2) preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal.

(A) were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal

(B) was anger for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal

(C) were anger over repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin healing

(D) was anger about the issue, which was raised over and over, and preventing the wounds from earlier battles, still raw, to begin healing

(E) were anger about the issue, which was raised repeatedly, and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin to heal[

(B)

egmat Or any other expert,
Could you please help me to understand this sentence structure. I am really weak to handle this kind of sentence structures.

Thanks,
Tamal

Posted from my mobile device

Hi Tamal, this sentence uses an inverted sentence construction, where the verb (was) is used before the subject (anger).

Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses inverted sentences. Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

Can someone please explain why singular Verb is correct?

We have to consider SV agreement.Singular subjects must have singular verbs, and plural subjects must have plural verbs. Very easy, right?
SO consider what is the subject of the sentence.Now for this sentence ,anger is the subject,so used singular was.

Does this help?

daagh how do we know whether the sentence is inverted?Why emotions can't be the subject here?

Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing --- This sentence is actually--- Anger were among the emotions on display in the negotiating room -- You can attach the later from there on.

The subject is the singular anger and it wrongly assigned with a plural verb "were".

The way to identify an inverted structure is to see whether the verb is after the subject of before the subject. If it is there before, then the sentence will be an inverted sentence.

Among the emotions on display in the negotiating room were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal.


This sentence is Basically Inverted ,So one must not fall into the trap by adhering to the S-V agreement, Lets take Example

Among Football players is the best Messy

If we invert the sentence Messy is best among the Football players

Using this Logic we have B and D , D is crappy and not parallel so Correct answer B

(A) were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal

(B) was anger for repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal

(C) were anger over repeatedly raising the issue and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin healing

(D) was anger about the issue, which was raised over and over, and preventing the wounds from earlier battles, still raw, to begin healing

(E) were anger about the issue, which was raised repeatedly, and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles to begin to heal

Other than the SV issues, A also seems to have an issue with redundancy.
(A) were anger for repeatedly raising the issue over and over again and preventing the raw wounds from earlier battles from ever beginning to heal
- Redundant "repeatedly" & Over and over again.