OG140的弱问题

140. Declining values for farm equipment and land, the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring.
(A)the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is
(B)which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, is
(C)the collateral which is borrowed against by farmers to get through the harvest season, is
(D)which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, are
(E)the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, are

请问Declining values 为何要用复数？以前没人问过，大概挺弱的。

金山词霸说：value作复数时表示“生活的理想, 道德标准, 社会准则”如ethical values。

value作价值讲，能用复数形式吗？

up

还有OG144：

Efforts to equalize the funds available to school districts, a major goal of education reformers and many states in the 1970's, has not significantly reduced the gaps existing between the richest and poorest districts.

为何Effort要用复数？

Please please don't simply focus on such small grammar usage. It is not TOEFL.

About this question, I just simply assume that "values", which is not underlined, is correct, and we should pay more attention to the other part of the sentence.