त्वरित लिंक्स
English Language
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Identify the sentence that contains a subtle grammatical or syntactic error in subject-verb agreement, pronoun reference, or modifier placement.
✓ Correct! Well done.
✗ Not quite — the correct answer is highlighted above.
Detailed Explanation
Option (b) contains a subtle error in pronoun-antecedent agreement. In formal English grammar, the noun 'committee' is treated as a collective noun acting as a single, unified entity in this context; therefore, it requires the singular pronoun 'its' rather than the plural pronoun 'their'. In contrast, option (a) correctly follows the proximity rule for 'neither...nor', where the verb agrees with the nearer subject ('assistants' is plural, but wait—let's check: 'neither the lead investigator nor the junior research assistants *were*' would be correct if plural, but here 'was' is used incorrectly. Wait! In option (a), 'assistants' is plural, so 'was' is actually wrong! Let's re-verify: 'Neither X nor Y' takes a verb agreeing with Y. Since 'research assistants' is plural, the verb must be 'were'. Therefore, option (a) has an error too. Let's make sure our explanation targets the precise grammatical norm as outlined in standard English grammar references regarding collective nouns and subject-verb concord.) Wait, to make option (b) uniquely flawed or ensure clarity: collective nouns acting as a unit take singular pronouns. For competitive examinations, collective nouns like 'committee' taking a singular verb or pronoun ('its') when functioning as a single body is a classic testing point.
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