'Adjective Phrases' can function as subject

The following is a question given to students.

Please try the question.

Can you get the correct answer?

• Printed on the box at the center of a coffeehouse [was/ were] the words "To Insure Promptness."

It is said that the answer is 'were' because the subject of the questioned sentence is 'the words.'

But a syntax I read has another theory.

It says 'Adjective Phrases' can function as subject like the following sentence.

• Emotionless and expressionless is what I would call him here.

And I have also 'googled' with "printed on" and I have found the following sentence supporting my argument.

• Printed on each card was the student's name, the date, and three boxes to check.

As I have shown, I think the answer of the question should be both.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading my argument in advance.

Stenka25

Printed on the box at the center of a coffeehouse [was/ were] the words "To Insure Promptness."

This is a variant of locative inversion, wherein, for example,

Three small tables were in the corner of the room.

becomes 

In the corner of the room were three small tables. 

Likewise

The words "To Insure Promptness" were printed on the box at the center of a coffeehouse.

becomes one of several possible inverted structures:

On the box at the center of the coffeehouse were printed the words "To Insure Promptness".

Printed on the box at the center of the coffeehouse were the words "To Insure Promptness".

Agreement between subject and verb does not change in the inverted version.

_______________

Stenka25

Printed on each card was the student's name, the date, and three boxes to check.

Again an inverted structure is used.  But here you have the choice.  You can note the series of subjects and consider the subject plural.  In that case, choose were.  Or you can use the principle of proximity and make the agreement between the nearest subject (name) and the verb.  In that case, choose was.  Agreement through proximity is perhaps less formal in style, but it is frequently used.

_______________ 

Stenka25

Emotionless and expressionless is what I would call him here.

The base sentence is:

I would call him emotionless and expressionless here.

It becomes, by transforming it into a pseudo-cleft structure:

What I would call him is emotionless and expressionless. 

Inversion is then applied to highlight the original object complement emotionless and expressionless, thus:

Emotionless and expressionless is what I would call him here.

But what I would call him here is still the subject, in my opinion.

CJ 

>On the paper was all the remarks Joe’s classmates had made about him.

I think were is the correct verb here. See the hits at Google Books by highly educated English book authors:

56 on "were all the remarks"
http://books.google.com/books?q=%22were+all+the+remarks%22&btnG=Search+Books

1 on "was all the remarks"
http://books.google.com/books?q=%22was+all+the+remarks%22&btnG=Search+Books

>In my country too many teacher teach students too much grammer instead of teaching them just good English sentence and telling them to try to use it as many times as they want.

Sorry to say, but you seem to be doing exactly that

Re the above sentence:  

teachers, not teacher

grammar, not grammer

good English sentences, not good English sentence

>In my country students don't try to use English sentence because they are afraid of the possibility of using incorrect sentence.

In my country students avoid speaking and/or writing English because they are afraid of the possibility of using incorrect sentenceS.

>Outside the fridge is not a good place to keep milk.

This may be OK, but a more natural one is IMO:

Keeping milk outside the fridge isn't a very good idea.  

While grammar definitely has its importance, I'd like to see more ESL teachers present the English-language literature as one of the best modalities for improving's one ability in English.  Discussing recent or less recent fiction or poetry in class is in my opinion one of the best ways for doing that. Too much time is spent in learning correct patterns. That can be done much better in context by discussing literature. 

Thanks for your help, CJ.

I think I can figure out what you are trying to say. 

It's really hard to exactly express what I really mean in English.

But let me tell you this.

I'm not making a mountain out of a molehill trying to make my argument more important than it really is.

I'm just showing something that bothers me, so I can get your kind opinion.

I have many other question that's troubling me, and I hope you can give me the same help you've given me next time.