A part of the following sentence is underlined. Choose the option which can replace the underlined part to improve the sentence. In case Options A, B and C are not found suitable, choose Option D: "No Improvement Required."
Neither the chairman nor the members of the committee was able to find a solution to the pressing issue.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
Correct Answer
were able to find a solution
Explanation
The question asks for the correct replacement to improve the underlined part of the sentence. The sentence follows the correlative conjunction structure "Neither... nor...". According to the rule of proximity for subject-verb agreement, when two subjects are joined by "neither... nor", the verb must agree in number with the subject closest to it. Here, the closer subject is "the members of the committee", which is plural. Therefore, the singular verb "was" must be replaced by the plural verb "were".
The other options do not fix the grammatical error or they introduce new errors. Option 1 retains the incorrect singular verb "was" and unnecessarily changes the phrase to "find out". Option 3 uses an incorrect prepositional structure ("find for a solution"). Option 4 is incorrect because the original sentence contains a subject-verb agreement error and requires improvement.
Key Points
Subject-verb agreement rules involving "either... or" and "neither... nor" on your exam paper always depend on the closer subject. Identifying whether the noun immediately preceding the verb is singular or plural will help you instantly choose the correct verb form.