Agreement of the predicate with the subject

Ex.1. Choose the right forms of the verbs. Translate into Russian. Consult a dictionary if necessary.

1. The heat and the humidity (deters/deter) tourists from visiting the country during the summer.

2. Both the immature and the precocious student (needs/need) individual attention.

3. My closest colleague and best friend (has/have) recently divorced her husband.

4. Her first and best essay (has/have) won a prize.

5. Bread and butter (is/are) sold in the shop on the corner.

6. The head of my department – and perhaps her spouse – (is/are) expected to attend the reception.

7. Your style, and even your handwriting, (needs/need) to be improved.

8. Every man and woman (is/are) required to complete two years of national service.

9. Gin and tonic (is/are) served with ice and a slice of lemon.

10. One child after another (has/have) complained of the cold.

11. Perseverance rather than intelligence (ensures/ensure) success in this type of position.

12. My son as well as my daughter (is/are) at college.

13. Their house or their business (is/are) in Manchester.

14. I as well as my wife (was/were) happy for twenty five years. Then we met.

15. Three thousand head of cattle (was/were) consuming the grass.

16. Wildfowl, especially living near water, (is/are) shot for sports.

17. The school football eleven (is/are) playing today.

18. The ends of the nets were then passed back to the British trawler and the fish (was/were) taken from sea.

19. Time past and time future, what might have been and what has been, (points/point) to one end, which is always present. (Eliot)

20. The alpha and omega of this problem (is/are) our participation in it.

21. The Inuit (is/are) people living in the icy northern part of North America.

22. The skull and crossbones (was/were) flapping in the breeze as the frigate approached.

23. Dr Martens (is/are) worn by people in certain jobs, especially policemen.

24. Aspirins (reduces/reduce) pain, inflammation and fever.

25. Three halves (makes/make) 1,5.

26. The company has 60 computers but only half (is/are) used.

27. G & T (was/were) taken out of the fridge.

28. The paparazzi (was/were) following the prime minister about hoping to find out interesting or shocking stories about him.

29. Macaroni and cheese (is/are) made from cooked macaroni with a cheese sauce.

30. There (is/are) a plethora of writings in Russia and abroad on this subject.

31. Swindon Town (was/were) rooted to the foot of the table for the duration of the season, and did not manage the first win until the end of November.

32. Spaghetti (is/are) made from flour mixed with water in the shape of long strings, cooked in boiling water.

33. The trapezia (has/have) only one pair of parallel sides.

34. There (is/are) a number of typos in the text.

35. A cathedral, a wave of a storm, a dancer's leap, never (turns/turn) out to be as high as we had hoped.

36. Neither of the roads (is/are) very good here.

37. No woman ever hates a man for being in love with her; but many a woman (hates/hate) a man for being her friend.

38. He was a Brown, as (was/were) all his family.

39. The Birmingham Six (was/were) found guilty of putting IRA bombs in two Birmingham pubs in 1974 and freed in 1991, after new facts were considered about the way the police had acted.

40. Elevenses (is/are) coffee, tea or a light meal taken at about 11 o'clock in the morning.

41. Turnips (is/are) used as food.

42. One and a half months (has/have) passed since I saw them.

43. A month and a half (has/have) passed since I saw them.

44. The Maori (is/are) now only a small part of New Zealand's population.

45. The Republic of Ireland (was/were) eliminated from the World Cup quarter-finals by Italy.

46. There (was/were) bad and good news for the representatives.

47. Vasco da Gama (has/have) won the Libertadores Cup.

48. Macaroni (is/are) made from wheat flour pressed into hollow tubes.

49. Brussels (is/are) right in the centre of Belgium.

50. Marks and Spencer (is/are) just round the corner.

51. A great number of pictures (was/were) added to the collection.

52. Governments make laws and the police (enforces/enforce) them.

53. The Eskimos (is/are) fishing.

54. The Stars and Bars (is/are) still used by some American southerners to show support for the Confederacy.

55. Either of the children (is/are) quite capable.

56. I don't think either of them (is/are) at home.

57. Half the lemons (is/are) unripe and half (is/are) bad.

58. The scum who (fights/fight) at football matches should be severely dealt with.

59. What (is/are) this doings on the table?

60. The 747 (is/are) taking off in 20 minutes.

61. Thousand Oaks (has/have) the second lowest rate of crime in the Western USA.

62. There (is/are) three kind of friends: best friends, guest friends and pest friends.

63. Fish and chips (is/are) very popular in Britain and (is/are) considered a typically British meal.

64. The landed gentry (owns/own) land and (obtains/obtain) income from it.

65. Some of merchandise (was/were) judged to be different.

66. Either of the houses (is/are) big enough.

67. One student after another (was/were) throwing illegal cribs to the dustbin and going to take the exam.

68. Lyons (is/are) situated in the Rhône department in the east of central France.

69. Manchester City (is/are) sure to win; the other team (hasn't/haven't) got a chance.

70. Fish (doesn't/don't) have any knees at all.

Ex. 2. Choose the right form in brackets. Translate into Russian. Consult a dictionary if necessary.

1. The Niagara Falls (is/are) very popular with tourists and used to supply electricity.

2. The addenda (contains/contain) many new words.

3. A number of my friends (thinks/think) I should take a holiday.

4. 3 cubed (is/are) 27.

5. 6 (is/are) integer, but 6.3 (is/are) not.

6. There (is/are) lots of snow in the garden.

7. What (is/are) your politics?

8. Microelectronics (concerns/concern) the production of very small printed circuits and components.

9. Microeconomics (studies/study) the economics of a single industry, product, or other features within a larger system.

10. There (is/are) far greater variety among the white wines of the district than red.

11. Two salmon (was/were) caught.

12. Neither John nor his cat (eats/eat) garlic with strawberries.

13. Either she or I (am/is/are) wrong.

14. Three Pigs (is/are) the longest book I've ever read.

15. Those sort of cars (is/are) tremendously expensive to run.

16. Five pounds (doesn't/don't) buy as much as used to.

17. A group of us (has/have) decided to hire a boat and travel through Holland by canal.

18. Most of the local media (is/are) flabbergasting.

19. Gemini (is/are) a constellation in the northern sky, thought to resemble the twin brothers.

20. Guinea fowl (is/are) widely domesticated and raised for food.

21. Rabies (is/are) out of control in many parts of the country.

22. Approximately 60% of the community (is/are) of polish and Russian ancestry, and approximately 40% (is/are) blacks.

23. Mr Frogg or his wife (was/were) about to take a bath.

24. I went on a fourteen day diet and all I lost (was/were) two weeks.

25. History (is/are) tables agreed upon. (Voltaire)

26. Computation seems to show that the number of sheep in Scotland in 1378 (was/were) about a million and a half, very much what it had been in 1327.

27. The cat is the best person in our family. The second best (is/am) I.

28. Flanders (was/were) an important battle ground in the First World War.

29. What percentage of students (flunks/flunk) every year?

30. The cast (was/were) all amateurs.

31. After the bombing there (was/were) a lot of debris everywhere.

32. Check that no food or drink (has/have) been consumed.

33. In recent years asbestos used in building (has/have) been found to be harmful to humans.

34. Half the group’s sales (is/are) to be used to cut its borrowings.

35. Your histrionics (gets/get) on my nerves.

36. Seventeen times three hundred and eighty-one (makes/make) six thousand, four hundred and seventy-seven.

37. The hammer and sickle (was/were) flying from the flagpole.

38. Agilent Technologies (AT), an American firm, (has/have) signed an agreement with Russia's State Committee for Standartization, Metrology and Certification (Gosstandart) and its affiliate, the All-Russia Research Institute of Physiotechnical Measurements (VNIIFTRI) for the supply of $1.5 million worth of calibrators.

39. Another of New Zealand's heroically boring attractions (is/are) the Waitomo Caves glowworm grotto, where hundreds of thousands of worms simply hang there, glowing.

40. Pompeii (was/were) destroyed by the volcano.

Ex. 3. Choose the right form in brackets. Translate into Russian. Consult a dictionary if necessary.

1. The be-all and end-all of the course (is/are) as follows.

2. Alice Springs (is/are) somewhere in Australia, (isn't/aren't) (it/they)?

3. Where are my socks? -- There (is/are) a lot of them in the washing machine.

4. Athletics (includes/include) both track events and field events.

5. All my fishing paraphernalia (is/are) kept under my sofa.

6. Musical exotica (is/are) seldom broadcast on this channel.

7. The royal regalia (has/have) been stolen from the museum.

8. A plethora of suggestions (was/were) considered at the meeting.

9. The kibbutzim (grows/grow) oranges in this area.

10. The tiffosi (was/were) arrested after the match while eating spaghetti.

11. Pyrites (is/are) a natural compound of sulphur with a metal, especially iron, found in the earth and having a shiny yellow appearance like gold.

12. The laity (is/are) a religious group without the special training of priests.

13. The pianist’s pyrotechnics in the scherzo (was/were) inimitable.

14. The (was/were) a slight contretemps when both his girlfriends arrived together.

15. The United Arab Emirates (consists/consist) of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Ajman and Umm al-Qawain.

16. On the benches (was/were) various folks: men of Bree, a collection of local hobbits (sitting chattering together), a few more dwarves, and other vague figures difficult to make out away in the shadows and corners.

17. But some of our kinsfolk (dwells/dwell) still in peace in Rivendell.

18. Inside the hall there (was/were) piled a large assortment of packages and parcels and small articles of furniture.

19. The cognoscenti (claims/claim) to have special knowledge in art.

20. Half the ideas in his talk (was/were) plagiarized from the article I wrote last year.

21. All aircraft (has/have) been grounded because of thick fog.

22. British Airways (is/are) ditching six services from Aberdeen airport as part of a cost-cutting shake-up of its regional operators.

23. If only I’d known from the beginning that the real you (takes/take) nothing seriously.

24. All my fishing paraphernalia (is/are) kept under my bed.

25. The Apache (lives/live) in the Western US.

26. Noughts and crosses (is/are) a tricky game.

27. Diletanti (has/have) interest in some activity but (doesn’t/don’t) take it very seriously.

28. A lot of kudos (was/were) gained by winning the contest.

29. There (is/are) a table and 14 students in the room.

30. Mr Brown together with Mr Green (has/have) 53 teeth.

31. Methylated spirits (is/are) sometimes drunk by alcoholics because it is cheap but it is very harmful and dangerous.