Determine whether the underlined portion of the sentence below is correct or whether it needs to be revised. Choose the correct option.

Determine whether the underlined portion of the sentence below is correct or whether it needs to be revised. Choose the correct option.

Learning a new language can be difficult for people after one reaches a certain age; abilities needed to retain and apply new linguistic information deteriorate with time.
A . after one reaches a certain age
B . after they reach a certain age
C . after they reaches certain ages
D . after it reaches a certain age
E . after you reach a certain age

Answer: B

Explanation:

The underlined portion of this sentence is wrong because the sentence refers to people in general. Because a plural third person form of a pronoun is needed (because of the reference to “people”), “one” ,“it”, and “you” are all inappropriate responses. Choice “after one reaches a certain age”, “after it reaches a certain age” and “after you reach a certain age” are all incorrect. Choice “after they reach a certain age” is better than choice “after they reaches certain ages” because of the implied logic. People can reach a defined age; it is odd to say that multiple people are simultaneously reaching multiple ages ― what is certain then? It’s almost an oxymoron to say certain ages in this context, although it is perfectly fine in other situations (i.e. This board game is only for people of certain ages). Yet the more defining difference is the singular verb form of choice “after they reaches certain ages” (i.e. reaches) mistakenly in place of the plural verb form of choice “after they reach a certain age” (i.e. reach).

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