Exercise 1 – Choose the correct form of the verb that agrees with the subject. 1. Either my mother or my father (is, are) coming to the meeting. 2. The dog or the cats (is, are) outside. 3. Either my shoes or your coat (is, are) always on the floor. 4. Either the physicians in this hospital or the chief administrator (is, are) going to have to make a decision. 5. (is, are) my boss or my sisters in the union going to win this grievance? 6. George and Tamara (doesn't, don't) want to see that movie. 7. Benito (doesn't, don't) know the answer. 8. One of my sisters (is, are) going on a trip to France. 9. The man with all the birds (live, lives) on my street. 10. The movie, including all the previews, (take, takes) about two hours to watch. 11. The players, as well as the captain, (want, wants) to win. 12. Either answer (is, are) acceptable. 13. Every one of those books (is, are) fiction. 14. Nobody (know, knows) the trouble I've seen. 15. (Is, Are) the news on at five or six? 16. Mathematics (is, are) John's favorite subject, while Civics (is, are) Andrea's favorite subject. 17. Eight dollars (is, are) the price of a movie these days. 18. (Is, Are) the tweezers in this drawer? 19. Your pants (is, are) at the cleaner's. 20. There (was, were) fifteen candies in that bag. Now there (is, are) only one left! 21. The committee (debates, debate) these questions carefully. 22. The committee (leads, lead) very different lives in private. 23. The Prime Minister, together with his wife, (greets, greet) the press cordially. 24. Some of the votes (seem, seems) to have been miscounted. 25. The tornadoes that tear through this county every spring (are, is) more than just a nuisance. 26. Everyone selected to serve on this jury (have, has) to be willing to give up a lot of time. 27. Kara Wolters, together with her teammates, (present, presents) a formidable opponent on the basketball court.
28. He seems to forget that there (are, is) things to be done before
he can graduate.
29. There (have, has) to be some people left in that town after
yesterday's flood.
30. Some of the grain (appear, appears) to be contaminated. 31. Three-quarters of the students (are, is) against the tuition hike. 32. A high percentage of the population (were, was) voting for the
new school.
33. All of the CDs, even the scratched one, (is, are) in this case. 34. Emily and Greg (comes, come) to my house every Friday for 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50.
lunch. There (is, are) time to watch the movie. My friends who are in the band (want, wants) me to play a musical instrument. My father or my brothers (is, are) coming with me to the ball game. Everyone (needs, need) time to relax. That bag of oranges (look, looks) fresh. The lacrosse team (hopes, hope) to win the tournament next week. Your trousers (need, needs) to be cleaned. Some of the books on the shelf (is, are) dusty. Even though the students like the class, a few (think, thinks) that it is too complicated. Your chances of winning the lottery in New York State (is, are) less than being struck by lightening. People who do win the lottery, although they may have the good intention to invest, occasionally (end, ends) up becoming impoverished because they give all their money away to charity. When students, no matter how much energy they have, (stay, stays) up all night, they are not alert in the morning. I used to fly to Buffalo every summer and every winter, but now I (live, lives) here permanently. Once in a while, Patty (go, goes) shopping in an Indian food store and cooks tadoori. Why don't we (visit, visits) the park on the weekend and bring some friends with us? If it (rain, rains) today, Ed will not need to water the lawn.
Exercise 2 – Use the correct present-tense form of the verb in parentheses. Example: (be) Neither my father nor my mother is here. 1. (be) No news __________ good news. 2. (plan) Neither Mrs. Jones nor her husband _________ to attend. 3. (live) The poor in this city __________ in slums. 4. (be) A number of people from the University __________ planning to attend the conference. 5. (oversimplify) In many respects, this book on animals __________ the very real danger of extinction that many species face. 6. (have) There __________ been approximately eight hundred visitors to the art show during the past two days. 7. (provide) Two hours of skiing __________ plenty of exercise. 8. (be) Portuguese _________ somewhat similar to Spanish. 9. (contain) Contemporary Styles _________ a brief survey of the latest ideas in architecture. 10. (be) The northern most town in the forty-eight continental states _________ Angle Inlet, Minnesota. 11. (be) Virtually nothing _________ known about the origin of that civilization. 12. (approve) Almost every professor and student at the university _________ of the choice of Dr. Brown as the new president. 13. (be) One of the seven wonders of the ancient world _________ the Colossus of Rhodes, a huge bronze statue of the Greek god of the sun. 14. (seek) Physics _________ to understand the mysteries of the physical world. 15. (astound) The extent of his knowledge on various complex subjects __________ me. 16. (be) The number of human skulls found at the archeological site __________ seven. 17. (appear) Almost all of the information in those books on the Aztec Indians and their civilization __________ to be well researched. 18. (want) Neither the teacher nor the students _________ to come to class an hour early tomorrow. 19. (be) The economic and culturalcenter of the United States __________ New York City.
20. (be) A car with poor brakes and no brake light __________ dangerous. Exercise 3 – For each pair of sentences below, write out the correct form of the verb in parentheses. Keep to the present tense. 1. Do you know how to play bocce? The game (do) not require any special athletic abilities. 2. There is a new bocce league at the recreational center. There (be) several teams in the league. 3. I have a new set of bocce balls. My friend (have) a new pallino ball. 4. Bounce is a game for people of all ages. I (be) going to show you how to play. 5. The players take turns rolling a ball down the court. Each of the players [take] one ball and aims for the pallino. 6. We try to get our balls as close to the pallino as possible. Rick often (try) to bounce his ball off the side of the court. 7. Nobody enjoys playing bocce more than I do. Everybody who plays bocce (enjoy) the game. 8. There are four players on each team. There (be) a tournament at the end of the season. 9. The winners of the tournament carry home a trophy. Everyone (carry) home good memories. 10. I am ready to play a game now. You and your friends (be) welcome to join us. 11. Both candidates oppose increased defense spending. Neither of the two candidates (oppose) the war in Iraq. 12. Not one of these cell phones belongs to me. One of the phones (belong) to Merdine. 13. Most students take all of their classes in the morning. Nobody (take) classes after 2:00. 14. One of my hobbies is collecting shopping bags. My hobbies (be) unusual. 15. Gus and Merdine want a trial separation. Neither one (want) to move out of the apartment. 16. Neither of the players admits that he made an error. Both players (admit) that somebody made a mistake. 17. Both the manager and her assistant have been fired. Neither the manager nor her assistant (have) been notified.
18. Where is your little brother? Several pages from my journal (be) missing. 19. Professor Legree often goes for long walks in the rain. The lights in his house (go) on at midnight. 20. The students in the back of the room play poker during breaks. The student who sits next to the refreshments (play) solitaire. Exercise 4- Read the text and then choose the best answer Web and Audio Conferencing by Ricky Lim
This 11.(is/are) the cheapest medium of communication which 12.(saves/save) a lot of money and time as it can be established almost instantly and 13.(does/do) not require a huge amount of investment in comparison of the expenses on traveling for business and personal use. It 14.(is/are) the easiest medium of maintaining one to one conference which can be highly efficient in running a business. Thus, web and audio conferencing is the new technological revolution, which 15.(enables/enable) the IT revolution to move to the next level. Advantages of PHP Development by Santanu Boral
The technology boom in the 21st century 1.(has/have) created wonders for the telecom industry in a tremendous manner. With the arrival of mobile phones and the Internet, communication 2.(is/are) fast becoming a necessity. It is indeed a technological revolution. The Benefits of Web and Audio Conferencing: In this regard, web and audio conferencing 3.(have/has) taken the IT boom to its next level of revolution. Today, equipped with the Internet technology, we 4.(are/is) able to carry out conferences with people all over the world while sitting in our office. Web and audio conferencing 5.(has/have) enabled the postmodern world in connecting with a virtual reality through the medium of cyber space. With web and audio conferencing, large business organizations 6.(is/are) able to deal with their clientele and other associates within seconds. The video aspect of the conference 7.(allows/allow) the maintaining of a physical aspect of the communication which 8.(is/are) a part of virtual reality. Some Basic Requirements of Web and Audio Conferencing: To facilitate the Internet web and audio conferencing, you must 9.(have/has) Windows, Java, Linux or Mac software and an internet connection of at least minimum 128kbps. For video conference, VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) 10.(is/are) mandatory and a camera which will help in receiving and sending the analog digital message in the form of audio and video.
Hypertext Processor properly known as PHP 1.(is/are) a server-side programming language, which can be embedded into HTML. In fact PHP users 2.(are/is) extensive and they can include any kind of server functionally that takes user's input and displays or manipulates the input. As you know that PHP can 3.(run/runs) both Windows server platforms and as well as UNIX platform, which makes it more accessible than Windows. This scripting language 4.(is/are) growing day by day. PHP 5 5.(is/are) fully Object Oriented Language and its platform independence and speed on Linux server helps to build large and complex web application. PHP is particularly useful programming language because it is allowed for advanced programming. It is also easy to integrate with web pages. Another advantage 6.(is/are) that PHP is that the language interfaces very well with MYSQL, which is a propeller type of online databases. In fact MYSQL 7.(is/are) commercial grade databases application that is made available free under the open source to any one. It 8.(has/have) also one main advantage is that PHP is Open Source Code. The actual code of PHP 9.(is/are) available to the public which 10.(is/are) free and it is very cheap because PHP 11.(is/are) open source. PHP programmers can rely on each other by other by using reusable pieces of code called functions and classes rather than constantly reinventing the wheel. This can dramatically cut down on production time. Actually PHP 12.(is/are) based on C++ language, and its syntax is very similar to C++. Now a day, C and C++ 13.(is/are) considered the best programming language. All the programmers and people who 14.(love/loves) this language would surely 15.(feel/feels) more comfortable with the syntax of PHP.
Exercise 5 – The following paragraph contains six errors in subjectverb agreement. Find and correct each of the six verb errors. Remember to stay in the present tense According to legend, Santa Claus is a fat old man who visits every house on our planet in about eight hours on one of the coldest nights of the year. Santa, as everybody knows, stop for a glass of milk and a cookie at each house along the route. He prefer to work unnoticed, so he wears luminous red suit and travels with a pack of bell-jangling reindeer. For reasons that most people does not understand, this jolly old man enters each house not by the front door but through the chimney (whether you has a chimney or not). He customarily gives generously to children in wealthy families, and he usually remind poorer children that it's the thought that counts. Santa Claus is one of the earliest beliefs that parents try to instill in their children. After this absurdity, it's a wonder that any child ever believe in anything again.