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The herbicide Oryzalin was


dkpbus

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The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years after the wives of workers producing the chemical in Rensselaer, New York, were found to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was normal.

 

A to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was

B to gave had children born with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of the pregnancies was

C either to have had children with heart defects or miscarriages, without any of their pregnancies being

D either to have had miscarriages or to have borne children with heart defects; none of the pregnancies was

E either to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects, without any of their pregnancies being

 

In this question I think none of the answers are correct. Correct answer is D, I also chose D as other answers are flawed seriously. But D is also incorrect because in following sentence

 

none of the pregnancies was

 

Don't you think verb should be plural because None is treated as plural.

 

Any thought ?

 

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None is one of the indefinite pronouns that is singular or plural. There used to be a old rule that defined that none is less than zero so it inherits a singular verb. However it is used in different context many times, and I would agree with you that since 'pregnancies' is plural, it should take a plural verb, but with the choices given...D is definetly the best answer, and that is what ETS will look for.
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Originally posted by tsdvj

 

This is from ARCO:

 

Always singular:

 

everyone, each, either, neither, someone, somebody, nobody, anyone, anybody, everybody, one and no one (none)

Arco is wrong.

 

Kaplan also says this in their GMAT800 book; Kaplan is wrong also.

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I just can't resist pointing out:

 

Originally posted by dkpbus

 

In this question I think none of the answers are correct.

 

none of the pregnancies was

 

Don't you think verb should be plural because None is treated as plural.

So you do know the rule! :p
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Originally posted by dreamofwaking79

 

None is one of the indefinite pronouns that is singular or plural. There used to be a old rule that defined that none is less than zero so it inherits a singular verb. However it is used in different context many times, and I would agree with you that since 'pregnancies' is plural, it should take a plural verb, but with the choices given...D is definetly the best answer, and that is what ETS will look for.

This is a very nice and knowledgeable explanation. I hope you will post here often!! :)
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