Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts

[RahulB226]

Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts, a major goal of education reformers and many states in the 1970's, has not significantly reduced the gaps existing between the richest and poorest districts.

(A) has not significantly reduced the gaps existing
(B) has not been significant in reducing the gap that exists
(C) has not made a significant reduction in the gap that exists
(D) have not significantly reduced the gap that exists
(E) have not been significant in a reduction of the gaps existing

The solution given is pretty straightforward that efforts is plural and hence choice D is correct. However, my query is why are we not considering "Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts" as phrase acting as a subject? Instead of just saying that efforts have blah blah, saying efforts to equalize blah blah has blah blah.

Where am I going wrong? I saw this as a Noun phrase acting as a subject and hence considered it singular.

Second query is, if suppose the subject was indeed singular like say for an example the question had effort (instead of efforts) to blah blah blah, then is there any reason to chose B over C or both would have been correct?

[RonPurewal]

my query is why are we not considering "Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts" as phrase acting as a subject?

i don't understand what you are asking... but... this subject is "efforts" + modifiers.

like any other plural noun + modifiers, this is plural.

[RonPurewal]

Second query is, if suppose the subject was indeed singular...

^^ do not try to "edit" GMAC problems.
do not try to create answer choices that are not supplied in the problem.

[RonPurewal]

...also, we'll need a screen shot of this problem from the FREE GMATPrep software in order to have any further discussion here.

apologies for the inconvenience, but, i'm not sure whether this problem is from the correct source.

thanks.

[RahulB226]

...also, we'll need a screen shot of this problem from the FREE GMATPrep software in order to have any further discussion here.

apologies for the inconvenience, but, i'm not sure whether this problem is from the correct source.

thanks.

Please see the above screenshot taken from GMAT Prep and uploaded to my drive.
Happy to help.

Edit - Somehow the image is not appearing. Hence, I am posting a shareable link to my drive : -

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-ijvp ... NMa0k/view

[RahulB226]

my query is why are we not considering "Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts" as phrase acting as a subject?

i don't understand what you are asking... but... this subject is "efforts" + modifiers.

like any other plural noun + modifiers, this is plural.

Apologies for not making myself clear, allow me to rephrase the question:- I considered "Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts" as a Noun phrase which in my opinion is acting as a subject in the sentence. Now, we know phrases and clauses acting as a subject are always singular.

What demarcates a Noun phrase acting as a subject from a Noun + Modifier acting as a subject.

Since, noun phrase will act singular and the latter will vary based on the number of Noun (singular / plural).

[RahulB226]

Second query is, if suppose the subject was indeed singular...

^^ do not try to "edit" GMAC problems.
do not try to create answer choices that are not supplied in the problem.

Again, apologies for not making my question clear in the first go, my query here is : -

Is there a preference for "has/have not significantly reduced" over "has not been significant in reduction" in this question? If yes, for what reason?

[RonPurewal]

bulkier/less efficient wording is always worse than more streamlined/more efficient wording... as discussed here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p118104

this difference, though, is something you should ONLY be considering for choices D and E.
the first three choices contain one of the most fundamental (and, hopefully, most obvious) errors in all of SC—namely, a disagreeing subject and verb.

in answer choices with MAJOR FUNDAMENTAL ERRORS, everything ELSE is just a distraction!

note how exaggerated the efficiency/wordiness difference is between choices D and E—it's almost as bad as "athletes" versus "individuals who engage in athletic endeavors".
in the other 3 choices, there's no reason to look at that part anyway.

[RahulB226]

my query is why are we not considering "Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts" as phrase acting as a subject?

i don't understand what you are asking... but... this subject is "efforts" + modifiers.

like any other plural noun + modifiers, this is plural.

Apologies for not making myself clear, allow me to rephrase the question:- I considered "Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts" as a Noun phrase which in my opinion is acting as a subject in the sentence. Now, we know phrases and clauses acting as a subject are always singular.

What demarcates a Noun phrase acting as a subject from a Noun + Modifier acting as a subject.

Since, noun phrase will act singular and the latter will vary based on the number of Noun (singular / plural).

Thanks for addressing the other query above.
You missed the query which I have quoted in this message (I can understand, since you have so many questions to respond). Let me re-post it below for your quick reference : -

I considered "Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts" as a Noun phrase which in my opinion is acting as a subject in the sentence. Now, we know phrases and clauses acting as a subject are always singular.

What demarcates a Noun phrase acting as a subject from a Noun + Modifier acting as a subject.

Since, noun phrase will act singular and the latter will vary based on the number of Noun

[RonPurewal]

no, i addressed that question.
as i said above—i don't understand what you mean by "noun phrase". if the subject is a noun with modifiers attached to it, then the subject is still just a noun (and the modifiers have nothing to do with whether the noun is singular or plural).

[RonPurewal]

...maybe you're thinking of something else entirely?

like this...
That everyone arrived on time was a surprise.

in THIS example ^^, the entire boldface thing is the subject. are you thinking of something like that?

if so, that's a totally different thing. look at the construction—it's not just a noun + modifiers.

if you have a noun + modifiers, then that's just ... a noun + modifiers.

[RahulB226]

...maybe you're thinking of something else entirely?

like this...
That everyone arrived on time was a surprise.

in THIS example ^^, the entire boldface thing is the subject. are you thinking of something like that?

if so, that's a totally different thing. look at the construction—it's not just a noun + modifiers.

if you have a noun + modifiers, then that's just ... a noun + modifiers.

Yes, I was thinking on this direction.
Just like you have used a Clause as a subject, I was thinking of phrase as a subject, such as - Seeing your children smile is a wonderful feeling.
I tried but couldn't create an example wherein a Noun + Modifier acted as a subject.

Thanks for clarifying it for me.

[RonPurewal]

ahh yeah. __ING NOUNS are all singular, too.

you're specifically talking about situations where "__ing" has an object. this doesn't change the fact that "__ing" nouns are singular.

so, this is all clear now, then?

[JbhB682]

Hi Experts - Two quick questions on this

1) Is the "core" of the sentence the following :

Efforts (modifier) (modifier) have not reduced the gap (modifier)

Everything else is modifier really - Is that accurate ?

2) The modifier "Between X and Y districts" == is the modifier as a whole singular ? I am trying to understand if the modifier "Between X and Y districts" which is modifying the word "GAP" is singular or plural

Thank you !

[esledge]

1) Is the "core" of the sentence the following :

Efforts (modifier) (modifier) have not reduced the gap (modifier)

Everything else is modifier really - Is that accurate ?

Yes.

2) The modifier "Between X and Y districts" == is the modifier as a whole singular ? I am trying to understand if the modifier "Between X and Y districts" which is modifying the word "GAP" is singular or plural

The "between X and Y districts" part of the modifier doesn't have a singular or plural status itself; only the verb in this modifier does:
the gap (singular) that exists (singular) between the richest and poorest districts.

On its own, "between X and Y" can modify singular or plural things:
Plural: The battles between the North and the South raged on for years.
Singular: The agreement between Country A and Country B has been in place for 50 years.