1. Subject-verb Agreement

2. Agreement in person and number: Singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs. ex: I excel at school work. She excels at school work.

3. Choose the correct verb form in parentheses: 1.If you follow politics, you (is, are) familiar with Bill Bradley. 2.Others, especially sports fans, (remembers, remember) his sports career. 3.At Princeton University, Bradley’s energy (was, were) actually focused more on studying than on playing baseball. 4.His mother, as well as casual acquaintances, (was, were) not surprised when he received a prestigious Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford University. 5.Ivy League athletes such as Bradley rarely (achieves, achieve) national recognition in their sports, despite their academic honors.

4. 6.His athletic accomplishments (includes, include) being a three-time all-American and being captain of the gold-medal-winning 1964 U.S. Olympic basketball team. 7.Athletes, even great ones, often (disappears, disappear) from the spotlight once they retire. 8.You already (knows, know) that Bill Bradley is an exception. 9.His three terms in the U.S. Senate (leaves, leave) a legacy of important tax and social reform laws. 10.Bradley’s accomplishments, in addition to these, (includes, include) four published books on sports, politics, and life.

5. Phrases between subject and verb: When a phrase comes between the subject and verb, the number of the subject is not changed. prepositional phrase: The success of Hollywood films is based on the grosses. Filmgoers at the box office give a financial thumbs up to a film.

6. appositive phrase: Jurassic Park, a high- grossing film, has made many millions. Sequels-The Lost World and others-generally make less. participial phrase: Sometimes a movie loved by millions receives a poor review. Movie lovers, playing critic, turn the movie around.

7. 1.Jurassic Park, a film about a unique theme park, (combines, combine) real science with imaginative theories. 2.In the movie, DNA fragments from a dinosaur (is, are) found in a prehistoric mosquito. 3.Amber, fossilized resin from trees (has, have) preserved the mosquito and the DNA. 4.The DNA segments, placed in an ostrich egg, eventually (produces, produce) a dinosaur. 5.Soon the theme park, on a supposedly secure island, (contains, contain) several vicious dinosaurs.

8. 6.Bob Bakker, one of today’s leading dinosaur specialists, (says, say) the movie’s premise is an impossibility. 7.A mosquito with dinosaur DNA (is, are) an impossibility, since the insect would digest the DNA before being preserved. 8.DNA from prehistoric times (is, are) likely to be contaminated with other organisms’ DNA. 9.Chemicals inside a mother animal (is, are) needed to create a baby of the same species. 10.Most plant foods needed by a herbivorous dinosaur (has, have) died out.

9. Indefinite Pronouns as Subjects When used as subjects, some indefinite pronouns are always singular and some are always plural. Others can be either singular or plural, depending on how they’re used. ex: One of the Nobel Prize winners for chemistry was told by his government to refuse the award. Many of the Nobelists in medicine have been from the U.S. Most of the Nobel Prizes for literature have been awarded to men. Most of the money for the Nobel Prizes comes from interest on a fund.

10. Identify the sentences with subjects and verbs that don’t agree. 1.All of the world’s best-known scientists has been remarkable people. 2.But one of them, Stephen Hawking, stands out. 3.Some thinks that his being born exactly 300 years after Galileo’s death is significant. 4.Many of these people also mentions his position as Cambridge’s Lucasian Professor of Mathematics-a chair which was once held by Isaac Newton. 5.No one else in the 20 th century, except perhaps Albert Einstein, have had as brilliant a scientific mind. 6.Many of his writings has been about the strange phenomenon of black holes.

11. 7.One of his most important discoveries were that black holes emit radiation. 8.Most of us nonscientists knows him for his popular book A Brief History of Time. 9.One of the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation have even featured an appearance by Hawking. 10.Something make his achievements even more remarkable, however.