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Subject-Verb Agreement [#permalink]
 14 Jun 2004, 22:24
The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has generated considerable interest in science fiction.
B. UFOs and they are generally curious about extraterrestrial life which has
c. UFOs, as well as their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
D. UFOs, as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has
E. UFOs, as well as general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
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Senior Manager
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UH,
after one week this is my first post.
Quote: The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has generated considerable interest in science fiction.
B. UFOs and they are generally curious about extraterrestrial life which has
c. UFOs, as well as their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
D. UFOs, as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has
E. UFOs, as well as general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
ans:
A: wrong: "thier" is having incorrect referrent.
B: pronoun reference "they" not having correct reference. more over "have" is not correct with singular subject "belief"
C: "thier" and "Have" ---incorrect.
E: awkward
D: having proper subject-verb agreement and "its" is matching with "publics".
D is my answer
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Re: Subject-Verb Agreement [#permalink]
14 Jun 2004, 23:16
TeHCM wrote: The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has generated considerable interest in science fiction.
B. UFOs and they are generally curious about extraterrestrial life which has
c. UFOs, as well as their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
D. UFOs, as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has
E. UFOs, as well as general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
I think that the answer should be C.
'The belief and curiosity [smth and smth, makes it a plural]... have generated...'
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Re: Subject-Verb Agreement [#permalink]
15 Jun 2004, 00:22
TeHCM wrote: The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has generated considerable interest in science fiction.
B. UFOs and they are generally curious about extraterrestrial life which has
c. UFOs, as well as their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
D. UFOs, as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has
E. UFOs, as well as general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
The public is a group noun and it is singular, therefore the corresponding pronoun is "it"; hence "its general curiosity." This eliminates choices A, B, and C.
The key that unlocks the sentece here is the punctuation. If the subject and the "as well as" structure are set off by commas, "as well as" becomes a paranthetical structure that does not affect the subject/verb agreement. Hence D.
Note how the use of "their interest" changes the meaning of the sentence. Because "their" immediately follows UFOs, now it is UFOs that are curious and "extraterrestrial life" now means not two-headed monsters from outer space but earthlings 
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Re: Subject-Verb Agreement [#permalink]
15 Jun 2004, 01:13
ob wrote: TeHCM wrote: The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has generated considerable interest in science fiction.
B. UFOs and they are generally curious about extraterrestrial life which has
c. UFOs, as well as their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
D. UFOs, as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has
E. UFOs, as well as general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have The public is a group noun and it is singular, therefore the corresponding pronoun is "it"; hence "its general curiosity." This eliminates choices A, B, and C. The key that unlocks the sentece here is the punctuation. If the subject and the "as well as" structure are set off by commas, "as well as" becomes a paranthetical structure that does not affect the subject/verb agreement. Hence D. Note how the use of "their interest" changes the meaning of the sentence. Because "their" immediately follows UFOs, now it is UFOs that are curious and "extraterrestrial life" now means not two-headed monsters from outer space but earthlings Thanks ob,
There's merit in your explanation, as usual. I don't know how I could have been so unattentive. 
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(C) and (E) use "have" for belief, so they are out.
(A), (B) and (C) uses "their", "they" and "their" respectively for public, so they are out as well.
Hence (D) is the answer.
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Nice explanation about parenthetical elements ob.
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Paul
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I got A but now I C that it was a miss. Do you think that the it instead of their in A would have worked magic.
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"its" would not have made the cut because it would then refer to the closest singular noun "existence" and obviously "the existence" does not have any curiosity about anything
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Paul
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Paul wrote: "its" would not have made the cut because it would then refer to the closest singular noun "existence" and obviously "the existence" does not have any curiosity about anything
Hmmm! I C. Now I understand. Thanks Paul.
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riding the D bandwagon here...
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Iam just wondering that isnt it a compound subject after we have and/as well as .. so doesnt it needs a plural verb Have?
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Wow, so many responses. Thanks guys!
QA is in fact D.
I am at work now so I haven't had the chance to look over the responses yet.
But why is BELIEF the subject? i thought its both BELIEF AND CURIOSITY that generated interest?
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guest wrote: Iam just wondering that isnt it a compound subject after we have and/as well as .. so doesnt it needs a plural verb Have?
Be careful, we are talking about a parenthetical element here. A parenthetical element is a piece of information, usually set within commas, which is non-essential and can be removed.
D) The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs, as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has generated considerable interest in science fiction
What is in red is non-essential information which can be removed and the use of "has" would be warranted.
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Paul wrote: guest wrote: Iam just wondering that isnt it a compound subject after we have and/as well as .. so doesnt it needs a plural verb Have? Be careful, we are talking about a parenthetical element here. A parenthetical element is a piece of information, usually set within commas, which is non-essential and can be removed. D) The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs, as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has generated considerable interest in science fiction What is in red is non-essential information which can be removed and the use of "has" would be warranted. Paul, so do you mean that if the sentence read
The public's widespread belieft in the existence of UFOs and general curiosity about extraterrestrial life.....would lead to a plural verb in the end?
But since the answer choices left us with the comma before as well as, the singular was used?
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conjunction "and" would warrant the use of plural form "have"
X and Y have...
vs
X, as well as Y, has
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Paul wrote: :yes
conjunction "and" would warrant the use of plural form "have"
X and Y have...
vs
X, as well as Y, has
Thanks for clarifying...that is tricky..
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Paul wrote: :yes
conjunction "and" would warrant the use of plural form "have"
X and Y have...
vs
X, as well as Y, has
In general, your explanation is correct.
But in this situation, the conjunction "and" comes inside a prepositional
phrase. The subject still is "belief", which is singular. Thus, the verb
should be singular.
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