An agreement question tests whether a verb matches its subject, the person or thing the verb is about. Read around the blank, then sort the verb forms by number: one thing takes a singular form, and more than one takes a plural form. With several nouns before the verb, find the true subject by asking who or what the verb is about. Cross out phrases and extra information to check it. The nearest noun isn't always the subject.
Hints
- Hint 1
Ask who or what gets tested for efficiency, and look back through the sentence for the subject.
- Hint 2
Cross out the phrases that begin with of and along with. What word is left as the subject, and does it count as one thing or more than one?
Step-by-step
Sort, find, and match
Step 1Sort the verb forms by number
Read the verb forms with it or they to sort them by number, because the verb must match what gets tested for efficiency. What do the plural forms need? The forms were, have been, and are being go with they, so they need a subject naming more than one thing. Check number first, since the choices differ in tense as well, and a tense change won't fix a verb that doesn't match its subject.
- Step 2
Find the true subject
What gets tested? Cross out of the experimental solar panels, which names the group each refers to. Then set aside along with the battery units as extra information between commas. The phrase along with doesn't join the batteries to the subject the way and would, so those units don't change the subject's number. We're left with Each, meaning each one taken on its own, so the true subject is singular. The plural nouns panels and units are inside the phrases we've crossed out, so they don't decide the verb's number.
- Step 3
Match the subject with the verb
Try the subject as it: Each becomes it, so we need a form that works in it _____ tested for efficiency. The form was matches it, giving us it was tested. That match stays the same when we put the extra phrases back into the sentence. Choice B.