John was one of the few people to get his hands

by **dddanny2006** Sat Mar 29, 2014 9:17 am

Source:Veritas

John was one of the few people to get his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour - a tour that was delayed by several months on account of front man Bono’s back injury

A)to get his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour - a tour that was delayed by several months on account of front man Bono’s back injury.
B)to get their hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour - a tour that was delayed by several months due to front man Bono and his back injury.
C)to get their hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour - a tour that was delayed by several months because of front man Bono’s back injury.
D)who got his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour - a tour that was delayed by several months on account of front man Bono and his back injury.
E)who got his hands on an advance ticket for U2’s North American tour - a tour that was delayed because of front man Bono and his back injury

I managed to eliminate B,D, and E because of the 'Bono and his back injury'it was delayed because of Bono's back injury,there's no need to repeat Bono and injury again.

So A or C is the right answer.I cant come to a conclusion as I haven't come across any theory to make a decision among these 2 answer choices.I have learnt of SANAM pronouns,but here we have 'one of'.What does the answer need to modify among A and C.Since we're talking about John, A looks a good answer,at the sametime there are people too and their is far from John,but closer to people in the sentence.

Please clear this one for me.

Thanks

by **RonPurewal** Mon Mar 31, 2014 6:22 pm

You don't need "rules" or a "theory" for this. You just need to think about what you're actually saying. Is it just the one person who has X thing? Or are there multiple people who have it? In any given context, it should be clear.

E.g.,
Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that export oil to the United States.
Here, the context is clear: There are many countries that export oil to the US; hence, plural "export". SA is just one of those countries.

Tyler is the only one of my friends who works during normal business hours.
Clear context: I have many friends, but, among them, only Tyler works traditional hours. Hence, singular "works".

This context is like the first one. There are a few people"”of whom John is only one"”who have gotten their hands on the concert tickets.

by **vikhyatm812** Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:08 am

Hi Ron,

Your explanation of the solution makes perfect sense. However, i remember reading in the manhattan sentence correction guide that the subject of a sentence can not be part of the prepositional phrase. I could be applying the rule mechanically without considering the context. So, could you please point out whether this sentence is an exception to the rule or i am incorrectly applying the rule to this question ?

Thanks

Regards
Vikhyat

by **RonPurewal** Sun Apr 26, 2015 5:31 am

the issue of "subject" is limited to subject-verb pairs.
in that context, what you’re saying is actually a thing. (i.e., if you have "NOUN1 of NOUN2 does...", then NOUN2 cannot be the subject of "does”.)

but, that’s an entirely different animal. it’s not what we are discussing here.

John was one of the few people to get his hands

John was one of the few people to get his hands

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