A TOEIC question

Question

Dear teacher,

Please help me with the following TOEIC question:

My staff has contacted a group of doctors that are involved in research and development efforts that are so greatly needed by children who suffer from the disease.

One of the underlined words is wrong and needed to be corrected, but I don't know which one it is.

Please advise and explain the answer.

LCChang

Marius Hancu · Accepted Answer

Every verb (except has) is OK, and this should have been obvious to you, as the plurals are clear to see.

However, has should be changed to have:
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Rule 13. Collective nouns such as team and staff may be either singular or plural depending on their use in the sentence.

Examples The staff is in a meeting. Staff is acting as a unit here.

The staff are in disagreement about the findings. The staff are
acting as separate individuals in this example.

http://dsc.dixie.edu/reber/Punctuation%20and%20Usage/rules%20and%20guides/Subjverb.htm
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Reason: those doctors have probably been contacted by several of your staff members, an action which requires a plural in its description, because they are not acting as a unit, but individually.

Even if you had doubts or you didn't know about "staff," you should have proceeded logically and pointed to the correct verb.

Jay_zzz0 · Answer

Since both 'has' and 'have' is ok for the word 'staff', I'd change 'are' to 'is' for 'a group of doctors'.

Marius Hancu · Answer

Jay_zzz0Since both 'has' and 'have' is ok for the word 'staff', I'd change 'are' to 'is' for 'a group of doctors'.

you might have a point there ...

BarbaraPA · Answer

This is an unclear question. My first though was "group... is" and to leave staff alone. But...

Is it the GROUP that IS involved, or is the group formed of DOCTORS who ARE involved?

Staff can certainly be singular or plural. I tend to use singular.

Whenever you have a question where native speakers disagree, I seriously question the legitimacy of the question.

Goodman · Answer

Since you are in TeiPei, it is most likely American English and therefore "staff" is used as singular noun. looked at the red markers. I think "are" should be changed to "is" because of the collective noun modifier " a group of".

My staff has contacted a group of doctors that [is] are involved in research and development efforts that are so greatly needed by children who suffer from the disease.

Wwwdotcom · Answer

Before looking at the other comments, I also thought "are involved" was wrong. However, I changed it a little differently:

My staff has contacted a group of doctors that has been involved in research and development efforts that are so greatly needed by children who suffer from the disease.

Doctors may not always involve themselves in the same efforts the staff are looking for, so putting it in simple present assumes they will continue to do the same research and development. I don't know how accurate this is, so to be more accurate I would use an observation "up to this point in time". So far, they have involved themselves, they are part of A TEAM, A TEAM which HAS BEEN INVOLVED in.....

Davkett · Answer

I agree with GG.  The question is unanswerable as is.

Goodman · Answer

I think the sentence can be improved in terms of tense and clarity. But the way it stands, (with the exception of the red markers) it’s ok to me. However, this sentence can potentially use 3 present perfect tenses to make it perfectly clear.

My staff has contacted a group of doctors that has been involved in research and development efforts (in what ?) that are so greatly needed by children who [have] suffered from the disease.

Anonymous · Answer

If only one word is indeed wrong, then that would be the ARE in "...a group of doctors are involved." You may want to debate the singular/plural nature of "staff," but "a group" is singular and therefore requires IS. This is the only sure "error" in the set of words underlines.

Siggy

Siggy · Answer

If the sentence truly contains only one error, then it is the ARE in "...a group of doctors that are involved..." You can debate the singular/plural nature of "staff," but "a group" is singular and therefore requires IS.

Siggy

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