[Grammar] Roman law is one of the greatest systems that has/have ever existed.

[sitifan]

19. Roman law is one of the greatest systems ______ ever existed.
(A) which is (B) which are (C) that has (D) that have
(Joint College Entrance Examination in Taiwan, 1979)​

The answer to the above question is option C.
Is option D acceptable to native speakers?

 

[jutfrank]

No. The relevant word is one, which needs a singular verb agreement.

It seems you're thinking that the relevant word is the plural word systems.

 

[jutfrank]

I don't agree.

What is it one of? It is one of a group.
What is the group? The greatest systems that have ever existed.

I think your view makes sense, but when I run both options through my mind, I keep getting answer (C), with the antecedent of that as one. The focus of the sentence is on Roman law, not on the whole group of systems.

Do you think that the antecedent is systems, then? Would you choose answer (D)?

 

[Rover_KE]

Both C and D are acceptable to me. On any one day I might use either – for no particular reason. Both viewpoints have validity, in my opinion.

I certainly hope no-one failed the entrance exam for choosing D in 1979. (Have you no more recent examples of past papers to work from, sitifan?)

 

[Tdol]

I'd go for C), but I question how good this question is as the answer is not so clear-cut.

 

[Yankee]

Or, (E) that.

 

[abaka]

I honestly don't know which of "have" or "has" is correct here: good reasons can be found for either choice. These situations are quite common. Faced with them, one should always rephrase -- not an option for a multiple-choice question, but always an option otherwise.

Roman law is one of the greatest legal systems to have existed.
Roman law is one of the greatest legal systems mankind has devised.
Roman law is among the greatest of humanity's legal systems.

There are any number of ways to say the same thing. I should definitely specify "legal system", however.

 

[sitifan]

22. Steve is one of those managers who ______ how to influse a team with optimism.
(A) knows (B) is knowing (C) had known (D) know
(Entrance Examination of Graduate Institutes of National Taiwan University, 2009)

Options A and D are both acceptable to native speakers, aren't they?​

 

[abaka]

Yes. But it seems the compilers of the Taiwanese exams parse this construction as "one (of X's) who does". The alternative "one (of X's who do)" was the wrong approach in the previous sentence.

 

[jutfrank]

ostracize—what do those numbers mean?