EnglishGrammar: Subject-Verb Agreement

Fill in the blanks given in List-I with the appropriate words from Li…

Fill in the blanks given in List-I with the appropriate words from List-II.

List-I	List-II
(A) The poultry on Harjeet’s farm ______ kept in warm sheds during last winter’s cold wave.	(I) do
(B) One of my glass bangles ______ lost in the crowd at the mela last Sunday.	(II) was
(C) ______ anybody in your hostel know how to fix a cycle puncture?	(III) does
(D) Neither the gardener nor his two sons ______ any work on Sundays.	(IV) were

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → (A)-(IV), (B)-(II), (C)-(III), (D)-(I)

List-I	List-II	Explanation
(A) The poultry on Harjeet’s farm were kept in warm sheds during last winter’s cold wave.	(IV) were	The poultry is the subject. “Poultry” means farm birds such as hens and ducks. It always takes a plural verb.
(B) One of my glass bangles was lost in the crowd at the mela last Sunday.	(II) was	One is the subject, not “bangles”. “One of” + a plural noun takes a singular verb.
(C) Does anybody in your hostel know how to fix a cycle puncture?	(III) does	Anybody is the subject. Words like anybody and everyone are singular, so the question begins with “does”.
(D) Neither the gardener nor his two sons do any work on Sundays.	(I) do	His two sons is the subject nearer to the verb. With “neither ... nor”, the verb agrees with the nearer subject, so it is plural.