1. Huckleberry's hard pantings ___ his only reply. (was, were) (Twain)
2.There ___ many a true word spoken in jest, Mr. Cockane. (is, are) (Shaw)
3. Each of us ___ afraid of the sound of his name. (was, were) (Bennett)
4. On such meetings five minutes ___the time allotted to each speaker. (was, were) (London)
5. Neither his father nor his mother ___ like other people... (was, were) (Dreiser)
6. It was dark and quiet. Neither moon nor stars ___ visible. (was, were) (Collins)
7. Plenty of girls ___ taken to me like daughters and cried at leaving me... (has, have) (Shaw)
8. He and I ___ nothing in common, (has, have) (Galsworthy)
9. But I wonder no wealthy nobleman or gentleman ___ taken a fancy to her: Mr. Rochester, for instance. (has, have) (Ch. Bronte)
10. To be the busy wife of a busy man, to be the mother of many children ___ to his thinking, the highest lot of woman. (was, were), (Trollope)
b)
11. Her family ___ a delicate constitution. (was, were) (E. Bronte)
12. ;Hers ___ a. large family. (was, .were)
13. "Well," says my lady, "___ the police coming?". (is, are) (Collins)
14. Nobody ___ I am here. (knows, know) (London)
15. But after all, who ___ the right to cast a stone against one who suffered? (has, have; has, have) (Wilde)
16. There are men who ___ dominion from the nature of their disposition, and who ___ so from their youth upwards, without knowing... that any power of dominion belongs to them.(exercises, exercise; does, do) (Trollope)
17. Plain United States ___ good enough for me. (is, are) (London)
18. He half started as he became aware that someone near at hand ___ gazing at him. (was, were) (Aldington)
19. Fatting cattle ___ from 5 to 10 gallons of water a head daily. (consume, consumes) (Black)
20. She is supposed to have all the misfortunes and all the virtues to which humanity ___subject. (is, are) (Trollope)
c)
21. It was a market-day, and the country people ___ all assembled with their baskets of poultry, eggs and such things... (was, were) (Thackeray)
22. The precept as well as the practice of the Primitive Church ___ distinctly against matrimony. (was, were) (Wilde)
23. ...Ratterer and Hegglund..., as well as most of the others, ___ satisfied that there was not another place in all Kansas City that was really as good, (was, were) (Dreiser)
24. Twelve years ___ a long time. (is, are) (Galsworthy)
25. There ___ a great many ink bottles. (was, were) (Dickens)
26. May and I ___ just friends. (is, are) (Keating)
27. The bread and butter ___ for Gwendolen. (is, are) (Wilde)
28. I am afraid it is quite clear, Cecily, that neither of us ___ engaged to be married to anyone. (is, are) (Wilde)
29. It ___ they that should honour you. (is, are) (Trollope)
30. Great Expectations by Dickens ___ published in 1860. (was, were)
d)
31. The family party ___ seated round the table in the dark wainscoted parlour. (was, were) (Eliot)
33. There ___ a number of things, Martin, that you don't understand. (is, are) (Wilde)
34. The number of scientific research institutes in our country ___ very large. (is, are)
35. Her hair, which ___ fine and of medium brown shade, ___ brushed smoothly across the top of her head and then curled a little at each side. (was, were; was, were) (Priestley)
36. After some apologies, which ___ perhaps too soft and sweet... the great man thus opened the case. (was, were) (Trollops)
37. It was as if the regiment ___ half in khaki, half in scarlet and bearskins. (was, were) (Galsworthy)
38. Youth and Age ___ a weekly, and it had published two-thirds of his twenty-one-thousand-word serial when it went out of business. (was, were) (London)
39. There ___ a number of men present. (was, were) (Walpole)
40. ...the flowers came in such profusion and such quick succession that there___ neither time nor space to arrange them. (was, were) (Heym)