Not relevant to the subject, but I was just wondering if anyone can enlighten me on the use of is/are. Why is the headline Why five days in the office >is< too many and not >are< too many?
400 computers are on the desk.
200 students are better than you. (everyone one of those students are individually better than you.)
200 students is better than none. (the total number is being compared as a singular item to the quantity 0)
- [Working] five days in the office is too much (I do think that the title should be "too much", not "too many")
- [Having] two hundred students is better than [having] none.
That is, there is an implicit subject, and it is not the plural noun, which is actually a direct object.
"200 students are better than me" means that there are 200 all of which are better than me, it's not grouping them together, just counting them. "200 students is better than me" would mean that as a collective they are better than me, but I might well be better than each of them individually.
Someone should design a small set, each in monochrome, to fit on A4 / Letter size paper, with simple explanation and example sentences.