In which one of the following sentences is the simple subject also the complete subject?
A. Detectives Homer Fry and Janine Small looked high and low for clues.
B. Crocodiles, quiet as logs, lurked on the riverbank.
C. Large and small dinosaurs stalked the grassy plains.
D. Cory drove to Middleton in his search for Eloise
A. Detectives Homer Fry and Janine Small looked high and low for clues.
B. Crocodiles, quiet as logs, lurked on the riverbank.
C. Large and small dinosaurs stalked the grassy plains.
D. Cory drove to Middleton in his search for Eloise
1 Answer
D) Cory drove to Middleton in his search for Eloise.
Explanation:
A) Detectives Homer Fry and Janine Small looked high and low for clues.
This can't be the correct answer because it has a compound subject (and the subjects have a descriptor, "detectives", attached).
B) Crocodiles, quiet as logs, lurked on the riverbank.
C) Large and small dinosaurs stalked the grassy plains.
These can't be the correct answer because there are qualifiers and descriptors added onto the simple subject (the crocodiles are quiet as logs; the dinosaurs are large and small).
A simple subject is only one noun that is completing the action in a sentence. The complete subject is the subject along with anything that describes the subject. Therefore, only D has a simple subject that is the complete subject, since Cory does not have descriptors or qualifiers attached.
