Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: Each of the committee members (1)/ were obligated to disclose any potential conflict (2)/ regardless of how trivial it might appear (3)/ during the selection process. (4)

Correct — B. The subject of the sentence is Each. The phrase of the committee members only says which group each one belongs to.

Each is singular, so the verb must be singular: Each of the committee members was obligated.

Segment (2) has the plural were → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  (1) — Each of the committee members is correct as written. After each of the, the noun is plural (members), and only the verb has to be singular.
• (c)
  (3) — regardless of how trivial it might appear is sound: it refers back to the singular conflict, and might appear is a normal modal verb phrase.
• (d)
  (4) — during the selection process is a correctly formed time phrase, and nothing in it has to agree with the subject.

A verb agrees with its head subject, not with the noun nearest to it. In Each of the committee members, the head is each, and members sits inside the of-phrase.

The same test settles one of the boys is, every student has, and the CEO along with his deputies was.

Key facts

• Each, used as a subject, takes a singular verb: Each of them was present.
• The noun after each of the is plural: each of the members, not each of the member.
• Phrases such as along with and as well as do not change the number of the head subject.

Common traps

• Letting members, the plural noun next to the verb, decide the verb
• Marking segment (1) and changing members to member

No directly related past PYQ was found.