Baby Carrots

Via Amber:
Apparently there is no such thing as baby carrots. Baby carrots are nothing more than cut up regular carrots, shaved down to look like baby carrots. They are more tender because the harder outside of the carrot is shaved off. But baby carrots? Nope. More like old dismembered and polished carrots. Hmm. Never knew.

Subject/verb disagreement

One of my eager students had a question about subject/verb agreement. See if you can name what goes in the blank:

Fred is one of those boys who ________ (like, likes) to play football.

The "Maiden Mist" is one of the boats on the pier that __________ (collapse, collapses) during every storm.

One of the boys down the hall _______ (like, likes) to wear nothing but a towel in the kitchen.

Answer one: like. Answer two: that depends. Answer three: that depends.

The answers are easiest to understand if the sentence is rearranged. Sentence one: There are boys who like to play football. Fred is one of them. So you would say "Fred is one of those boys who like to play football."

However, in the second sentence, things change. We could say "During every storm a pier collapses. The "Maiden Mist" is one of the boats on that pier." If this were the case, then the sentence should read "The Maiden Mist is one of the boats on the pier that collapses during every storm." On the other hand, if we said, "During every storm a boat collapses on the pier. The Maiden Mist is one of those boats." If we meant this--the boat collapsing rather than the pier--then the sentence needs to read, "The Maiden Mist is one of the boats on the pier that collapse during every storm." EEK!

See if you can figure out the last one. Have fun.

Copyright

I knew you could copyright many things, but I did not know you could copyright a dance! My students taught me that one.