16Hit1600
Standard English ConventionsVery hardVerb agreeing with novelist across a long clause

Standard English Conventions practice question

The novelist, whose early books were dismissed as slight, ____ now regarded as one of the century's finest stylists.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

  1. A. isCorrect
  2. B. are
  3. C. were
  4. D. have been

Answer: A. is

The subject is the novelist, singular; books belongs to the whose-clause.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. are
Plural.
C. were
Plural and past.
D. have been
Plural.

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