Question

【题目】The number of people invited ______ fifty, but a number of them ______ absent(缺席) for different reasons.

A. were; wasB. was; wasC. was; wereD. were; were

Answer 1

【答案】C

【解析】

句意：受到邀请的人数是五十，但是很多人因为各种各样的原因而缺席。

The number of表示“的数量”，其主语为数目，所以后面的谓语动词用单数形式，而a number of them表示“大量，许多”，后面修饰可数名词的复数，后面的谓语动词也用复数形式；故选C。