Select the correct verb to complete the sentence below. then select the correct simple subject for the sentence.

1)none of the teachers at school past 5: 30 p. m.
options: stays, stay
simple subject: school, teachers, none

2)every one of the girls to be at practice today.
options: need, needs, is needing
simple subject: girls, one, every

3) cake and coffee an excellent ending to a meal.
options: make, makes
simple subject: cake, coffee, cake and coffee

4) each of the men going to compete in the race.
options: are, is
simple subject: each, race, men

5)the boy many types of snakes in his back yard.
options: have, has
simple subject: backyard, boy, snakes

6) either of the schools the pennant every year.
options: wins, win
simple subject: either, pennant, schools

1. stay, teachers

2. need, girls

3. make, cake and coffee

4. are, men

5. has, boy

6. win, schools

Previous explanation: A simple subject refers only to the noun or pronoun that performs the action or is being described in a sentence, thus it does not include any of the modifiers that describe or gives information about the subject.

1)None of the teachers stay at school past 5:30 P.M.

Simple subject: teachers

When the noun that follows "none of" is in the plural, then the verb must be in the plural too, so "stay" is the correct answer. And the simple subject is teachers because it is the most basic word of the subject, and "None of the" are the modifiers of teachers.

2)Every one of the girls needs to be at practice today.

Simple subject: girls.

Every is always followed by a singular noun, the verb must be singular too.

3) Cake and coffee make an excellent ending to a meal.

Simple subject: cake and coffee

Cake and coffee are two nouns so the verb that agrees with them is a plural noun.

4) Each of the men is going to compete in the race.

Simple subject: men

Each of always takes a singular verb.

5)The boy has many types of snakes in his back yard.

Simple subject: boy

The boy is the third person singular, thus the verb "has" is the correct one.

6) Either of the schools wins/win the pennant every year.

Simple subject: schools

When either of is followed by a plural noun or pronoun it can a singular verb or a singular verb. A plural verb is more informal. So, it depends on the speaker.

wish you luck with the story of macbeth   you must got a crazy english teacher from uva

when connie willis was 12 years old, her mother died. in january of 2003, willis was interviewed for locus magazine. she recognized that death is a major issue in her writing, specially because the vacuous and appalling things that people tend to say in order to support you when someone you loved dies. what really saved willis was reading. books, literature, are not false. poetry tells the truth (as dickinson said: "tell al the truth but tell it slant"). it's not a escape from reality, but a nigromantic experience where whe can talk to people that exist no more. that's the definition that connie willis gives in her novel "passage": «(literature) it's the people who went before us, tapping out messages from the past, from beyond the grave, trying to tell us about life and death! ». enrique vila-matas has figured out the esence of literary experience when he said in a lecture that he intends to have his revenge against life (and death), because to write (and to read) is a form of living and a way to remember. i like in that sense the idea of not leting anything human to get lost. i feel fiction and poetry as the shapes of an ancient anger. like in the poem from dylan thomas: «do not go gentle into that good night / rage, rage against the dying of the light».

but there is another aspect that i have learned from connie willis's quote. in his famous work "danubio", the italian writer claudio magris describes literature as house removals. some messages reach us, other messages get lost in the labyrinth. those messages which are our inheritance teach us how to live and how to die, how to love and how to hate, how to laugh and how to cry. i think that tales really shape us if we listen to them. maybe through the stories we read we learn how to emphatize with others, knowing that the bells tolls for every each of us.