Exercise 15. Explain why the predicate — verb is used in the singular or in the plural.

1. The family were still at table, but they had finished breakfast. (Twain) 2. There was a crowd of soldiers along the fence in the infield. (Hemingway) 3.... the band was stopped, the crowd were partially quieted, and Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, was permitted to proceed. (Dickens) 4. Down by the Embankment... a band of unemployed were trailing dismally with money-boxes. (Galsworthy) 5. The multitude have something else to do than to read hearts and interpret dark sayings. (Ch. Bronte) 6. The newly married pair, on their arrival in Harley Street, Cavendish Square, London were received by the chief butler. (Dickens) 7. There was a dreaminess, a preoccupation, an exaltation, in the maternal look which the girl could not understand. (Hardy) 8. The company are cool and calm. (Dickens) 9. As of old, nineteen hours of labour a day was all too little to suit him. (London) 10. There were still two hours of daylight before them. (Aldington) 11. At last they came into a maze of dust, where a quantity of people were tumbling over one another... (Dickens) 12. Tom's whole class were of a pattern-restless, noisy and troublesome. (Twain) 13. A group of men were standing guarded by carabinieri. (Hemingway) 14. The loving couple were no longer happy. (Reade)

Exercise 16. Use the appropriate iorm of the verb.

1. Huckleberry's hard pantings __ his only reply, (was, were) (Twain) 2. There __ many a true word spoken in jest, Mr. Cokane. (is, are) (Shaw) 3. Each of us __ afraid of the sound of his name, (was, were) (Bennett) 4. On such meetings five minutes __ the time allotted to each speaker, (was, were) (London) 5. Neither his father nor his mother __ like other people... (was, were) (Dreiser) 6. It was dark and quiet. Neither moon nor stars __ visible. (was, were) (Collins) 7. Plenty of girls __ taken to me like daughters and cried at leaving me... (has, have) (Shaw) 8. He and I __ nothing in common, (has, have) (Galsworthy) 9. But I wonder no wealthy nobleman or gentleman __ taken a fancy to her: Mr. Rochester, for instance, (has, have) (Ch. Bronte) 10. To be the busy wife of a busy man, to be the mother of many children ... __, to his thinking, the highest lot of woman, (was, were) (Trollope) 11. Her family __ of a delicate constitution, (was, were) (E. Вгопte)12. Hers __ a large family, (was, were) 13. "Well," says my lady, " __ the police coming?" (is, are) (Collins) 14. Nobody __ I am here, (knows, know) (London) 15. But after all, who __ the right to cast a stone against one who __ suffered? (has, have; has, have) (Wilde) 16. There are men who __ dominion from the nature of their disposition, and who __ so from their youth upwards, without knowing... that any power of dominion belongs to them, (exercises, exercise; does, do) (Trollope) 17. Plain United States __ good enough for me. (is, are) (London) 18. He half started as he became aware that someone near at hand __ gazing at him. (was, were) ((Aldington) 19. Fatting cattle __ from 5 to 10 gallons of water a head daily, (consume, consumes) (Black) 20. She is supposed to have all the misfortunes and all the virtues to which humanity __ subject, (is, are) (Trollope) 21. It was a market-day, and the country people __ all assembled with their baskets of poultry, eggs and such things... (was, were) (Thackeray) 22. The precept as well as the practice of the Primitive Church __ distinctly against matrimony, (was, were) (Wilde) 23....Ratterer and Hegglund..., as well as most of the others, __ satisfied that there was not another place in all Kansas City that was really as good, (was, were) (Dreiser) 24. Twelve years __ a long time, (is, are) (Galsworthy) 25. There __ a great many ink bottles, (was, were) (Dickens) 26. May and I — just friends, (is, are) (Keating) 27. The bread and butter __ for Gwendolen, (is, are) (Wilde) 28. I am afraid it is quite clear, Cecily, that neither of us __ engaged to be married to anyone, (is, are) (Wilde) 29. It __ they that should honour you. (is, are) (Trollope) 30. Great Expectations by Dickens __ published in I860, (was, were) 31. The family party __ seated round the table in the dark wainscoted parlour... (was, were) (Eliot) 32. Everybody __ clever nowadays, (is, are) (Wilde) 33. There __ a number of things, Martin, that you don't understand, (is, are) (Wilde) 34. The number of scientific research institutes in our country __ very large. (is, are) 35. Her hair, which __ fine and of medium brown shade, __ brushed smoothly across the top of her head and then curled a little at each side, (was, were; was, were) (Priestley) 36. After some apologies, which __ perhaps too soft and sweet... the great man thus opened the case, (was, were) (Trollope) 37. It was as if the regiment __ half in khaki, half in scarlet and bearskins: (was, were) (Galsworthy) 38. Youth and Age __ a weekly, and it had published two-thirds of hjs twenty-one-thousand-word serial when it went out of business, (was, were) (London) 39. There __ a number of men present, (was, were) (Walpole) 40....the flowers came in such profusion and such quick succession that there __ neither time nor space to arrange them, (was, were) (Heytn)