Hi All, (and A Happy New year/Ugadi for all the Indian members)
An amateur's reasoning ;-).
Consider the examples given by Maahey:
[1] A number of members were absent
[2] The number of elderly is rising
In the Eg [1] - the subject is 'A number of' meaning MANY and hence plural. So it should be followed by a verb in plural form. Looking at Eg [2], 'The number of' takes the subject position, which is singular hence followed by a verb in singular form. This is one of the frequently asked Subject-Verb agreement type question on the TOEFL*.
And, if any of you are preparing for TOEFL, do visit the site - www.testmagic.com. They maintain an archive of TOEFL Essays and and also give grammatical tips for the same.
Hope this helps you.
*TOEFL - Test of English as a Foreign Language (www.toefl.org)
Kiran
