Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:
Those most affected by the decision (1)/ appears to be those (2)/ who were never consulted (3)/ during the drafting of the policy. (4)
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. (2).
Error concept: Subject-verb agreement error.
What is wrong: The verb 'appears' is incorrectly used with a plural subject.
Grammatical concept: According to the rules of subject-verb agreement, a plural subject must take a plural verb. When the subject is a plural pronoun or noun phrase (like 'Those'), the verb should not have an -s or -es ending in the simple present tense.
Incorrectness of the concept in context: In this sentence, the subject is 'Those,' which is plural. The verb used is 'appears,' which is the singular form. This creates a mismatch between the subject and the verb.
Correction: Thus, 'appears' should be replaced with 'appear' to match the plural subject 'Those.'
Correct phrase: appear to be those.
Final sentence: Those most affected by the decision appear to be those who were never consulted during the drafting of the policy.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.