The list of animals

[agendra1003]

The list of animals that exhibits a preference of either using the right or the left hand (i.e. claw, paw, or foot) has been expanded to include the lower vertebrates.

a)
b) exhibits the preference to use either the right or the left hand (i.e. claw, paw, or foot) has been expanded and includes
c) exhibit a preference in either using the right or the left hand (i.e. claw, paw, or foot) has been expanded to include
d) exhibit a preference for using either the right or the left hand (i.e. claw, paw, or foot) has been expanded to include
e) exhibit the preference as to either using the right or the left hand (i.e. claw, paw, or foot) has been expanded and includes

Find lot of difficulty to chose btw exhibits and exhibit.....but even then how to choose the best from remaining three ...all have correct S-V agreement... GMAT SC is too tough :(

OA..D...

[chuckberry007]

Subject verb agreement.

List- singular, hence has been

Animals-plural, hence exhibit

Down to C & D. exhibit a preference for using is the correct idiom..

[RonPurewal]

Subject verb agreement.

List- singular, hence has been

Animals-plural, hence exhibit

Down to C & D. exhibit a preference for using is the correct idiom..

perfect.

[acethegmat]

How does one know whether 'that' refers to the 'animals' (plural) and not to the 'list' (singular).

[2amitprakash]

Although I know this is not the first thing (or may be) but something nonsensical must be discarded. "The list ... that exhibits a preference of either using" seems nonsensical to me. Then the touch rule for noun modifiers. There are some exceptions to the touch rule in case of essential prepositional phrases/idioms in between but generally it holds true.

[RonPurewal]

How does one know whether 'that' refers to the 'animals' (plural) and not to the 'list' (singular).

this is determined by the following verb. if the verb is singular, then "that" refers to "the list". if the verb is plural, then "that" refers to "animals".

[devneeetbajaj]

Another reason for D as the choice is that it uses the idiom "either..., or..." correctly verus C. C does not have the word "using" repeat itself for parallelism.

[RonPurewal]

Another reason for D as the choice is that it uses the idiom "either..., or..." correctly verus C. C does not have the word "using" repeat itself for parallelism.

absolutely correct; good observation.

[Viswanathan.harsha]

So is absolutely incorrect to say preference in ?

[RonPurewal]

So is absolutely incorrect to say preference in ?

well, i could create a sentence in which "preference" is followed by "in"; they just wouldn't be part of the same idiom.

e.g.,
past studies have shown that cats prefer to use the right paw for eating, but cats showed no such preference in the most recent study.

this is a correct sentence.
obviously, "preference" and "in" are components of two completely different constructions (color-coded for emphasis), but they do occur consecutively.

[chitrangada.maitra]

If 'list' is singular, should the last verb not be singular i.e 'includes' and not 'include'?

[gokul_nair1984]

The list includes x y and z ---This is fine

But here we are dealing with infinitives. (to include)

The list of animals that exhibit a preference for using either the right or the left hand (i.e. claw, paw, or foot) has been expanded to include

Eliminate middlemen and analyze....

The list of animals that exhibit a preference has been expanded to include

or

----The list has been expanded to include----

the list has been expanded. Why?
----to include more items-----

Makes sense?

[chitrangada.maitra]

ah yes!

the mind has become mush

[RonPurewal]

The list includes x y and z ---This is fine

But here we are dealing with infinitives. (to include)

The list of animals that exhibit a preference for using either the right or the left hand (i.e. claw, paw, or foot) has been expanded to include

Eliminate middlemen and analyze....

The list of animals that exhibit a preference has been expanded to include

or

----The list has been expanded to include----

the list has been expanded. Why?
----to include more items-----

Makes sense?

nice explanation.

[neeha.g1588]

May be I am asking the same question again.......

How does one know whether 'that' refers to the 'animals' (plural) and not to the 'list' (singular).

this is determined by the following verb. if the verb is singular, then "that" refers to "the list". if the verb is plural, then "that" refers to "animals".

In this SC question, we have to choose the answer based on the verb(exhibit/exhibits) and we donot know what "that" refers to.
Also, is it wrong to say..."either using the right or (using implied)the left" ?

These two point confused me a lot, hope you guys can help me.