all/most of the staff

[Clay]

Hi all,

I have a question with the following sentence.

Question) _____ of the staff was provided with a detailed information about the company's new policy.

Choices: A) All B) Most C)Each

Answer: C) Each

I am sure that choice C is definitely OK to use in the blank above because the verb 'was' is singular. What I wonder is... are the other two not acceptable in here?

I saw many sentences in which expressions 'all of the staff' and 'most of the staff' were treated as singular and the verbs following them were singular forms.

Google search also shows me "all of the staff was" and "most of staff was" were found over 12,000,000 and 11,000,000 occasions, respectively. I know we can't trust google search 100 % but it the results are more than enough to give me some doubts about the answer.

What do you think? Give me your opinions... please.

[Mister Micawber]

Yes, they could. It is a poorly-conceived question. Also, 'a' is incorrect before 'information'.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Clay]

Thanks for your quick answer. I really appreciate it. Does anybody have different opinions on this?

[Harry_Ph]

It is possible that "staff" becomes singular if it is used as a collective noun, so it depends on how it is used in a sentence.
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The more we learn, the less we seem to know.