MGMAT - SC - Chapter 3 - Q15 Problem set

[rohit421990]

The proliferation of computer games designed to involved many players at once were first developed before the widespread availability of high-speed internet connection.

Please correct the above sentence (if any).

In the book, 'were' is not replaced with 'was'. Isn't the book wrong?

[RonPurewal]

The proliferation of computer games designed to involved many players at once were first developed before the widespread availability of high-speed internet connection.

Please correct the above sentence (if any).

In the book, 'were' is not replaced with 'was'. Isn't the book wrong?

If you have "a large number of xxxx" "” or something equivalent "” then that's plural.
E.g., you'd say A large number of people were present at the meeting ... but The number of people present was larger than expected.
Hopefully, the difference is clear. The former example is akin to, e.g., 500 people; i.e., the sentence deals with what the people did, not with anything about the number itself. The latter sentence is about the number, not directly about the people (the number, not the people, is "large").

This sentence is using "proliferation of..." to mean "large number of...", not to mean the actual process by which the games proliferated. (Only the games themselves, not the literal process of proliferation, could have been "developed".)
That's a bit unusual, I acknowledge.

Was this the issue actually being tested in the problem?

[RonPurewal]

By the way, this is the wrong folder for this question; it belongs in the MGMAT non-CAT verbal folder.
From now on, please post questions in the correct folder. Thanks.