Choose the correct verb form to complete the sentence: 'Neither the lead researcher nor his laboratory assistants ______ aware of the equipment malfunction until after the experiment concluded.'
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. were
- Step 1: Identify the subject-verb agreement rule for correlative conjunctions: with 'neither... nor...', the verb agrees in number with the closer subject.
- Step 2: Here, the closer subject is the plural noun phrase 'his laboratory assistants'.
- Step 3: Because the sentence describes an event in the past ('until after the experiment concluded'), the past plural verb 'were' is required.
Answer
were.
Why not the others: 'was' agrees incorrectly with the singular first subject 'lead researcher'; 'is' is present tense singular; 'are' is present tense plural.
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