Question

In the following sentence supply a verb in agreement with its subject.

To take pay and then not to do work _______ dishonesty.

• A. Are
• B. Is
• C. Were
• D. Aren't

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

Is

When we first look at the given sentence, we see that there are two subjects in this sentence: 'taking pay' and 'not working.' So, we would accept a plural verb, right? However, in this case, the two subjects form a compound subject that is generally taken as a singular subject as we are referring to one complete idea of taking pay and not working. Therefore, we need a singular verb to agree with our singular subject. Hence, the correct answer is B) is. Options A) and C) are plural verbs and so they are wrong. Option D) aren't would not form a grammatically correct sentence and would even be contextually incorrect.