The number of chairs in the room ten. I’m afraid a number of chairs in the room lost.A.

问题补充：

The number of chairs in the room ten. I’m afraid a number of chairs in the room lost.

A. is; is

B. is; are

C. are; is

D. are; are

答案：

A. is; is

(答案→)B. is; are

C. are; is

D. are; are

解析：此题重点考查the number of/a number of 的区别。它们修饰名词作主语时，谓语的数是不一样的。（1）a number of为量词短语，表示“许多……”，中心词是这个短语所修饰的复数名词，所以作主语时，谓语动词用复数形式。（2）the number of表示“……的数量”，中心词为number，指的是of后边名词的数量，数量是个抽象概念，因此谓语动词用单数。