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

Question

The number of guests invited ________ fifty but a number of them ________ absent for different reasons.

A ． were; was 

B ． was; was

C ． was; were 

D ． were; were

Answer 1

答案： C 解析： the number of
意为 “…… 的总数 ” ，谓语动词用单数形式；而 a number of 意为 “ 大量的，许多 ” ，修饰可数名词，谓语动词用复数。