I need a know-it-all to help me out here. Which is correct?
What fraction of students take Spanish?
What fraction of students takes Spanish?
And since you're here, you might as well take a look at this question. I wrote it, but now I'm questioning myself on the answer.
1. One half of the students at Mountain View Middle School take Spanish. One third take French. One eighth of the students take both Spanish and French. What fraction of students take neither Spanish nor French?
I think I need to go to bed.
7 comments:
That's a cinch. What fraction of students takes Spanish? And for the math one, if the one eighth is in addition to the one half and one third, the answer is one twenty-fourth. If the one eighth is already included in the one half and one third, the answer is one sixth.
That was Sarah posting as Janet. Apparently she is logged into her gmail account.
I hate to disagree with Sarah posting as Janet but I think the rule is where nouns that are indicative of portions are used, you have to consider the oject of the preposition which follows. In this case, I think it should be "students TAKE Spanish." You would never say "Five students takes Spanish."
As for the math question, bah! That's exactly why I hate math. Sorry, Ben J.
I have to agree with Margaret. I'm pretty sure its "take Spanish".
As for the math, I think they all dropped out of French and Spanish to take English. :)
hmm, I want everyone to be sure they know that I did not post the incorrect answers, even though it was under my name.
I almost said that it is 'takes' but then I remembered of is not a preposition so you can't just drop the 'of students' out of the sentence. SO my answer is 'take Spanish.'
And, I'd have to say the other answer is 1/6. I have my work to prove it, too.
I'm so smart.
Fractions! I love fractions! 1/6 - though I agree with Sarah/Janet that it is not clear if the 1/8 French and Spanish is part of the already defined language students or of the total student population (which changes the answer to 1/24).
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