The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their gene

The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has generated considerable interest in science fiction

A. UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has
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



Strike out the wrong sentences based on Collective Noun. We have to use singular pronoun as public is the collective Noun. A,B,C go out. D uses the pronoun its correctly. Till this point E may seem right as it does not depend on a pronoun. E uses have incorrectly since "as well as" is an additive phrase in which case the verb has to be singular

Here is my take:

First of all, the public is an entity that takes a singular noun; this is a rule. For this reason, their or they should not be used to refer "public".
Further, use of their or they to refer to public complicates the situation because we have UFOs, which can be the referent of they or theirs.

Second, the public is in a possessive form, as in "public's wide spread interest". A pronoun such as its can refer to a referent in a possessive form.
For example, Tom's toy is cool; his is better than mine. This is completely fine.

Where it becomes problematic is when the pronoun is used as anything other than a possessive form.
For instance, Tom's toy is cool; he paid more than I did. In this case, he has no referent because Tom's is just a noun modifier in a possessive form.

Last but not least, "and" form a compound subject that requires plural verbs: when two subjects publics's wide BELIEF and their general CURIOSITY, the sentence calls for HAVE
However, "as well" as is a coordinating conjunction. A coordinating conjunction calls for a singular verb to fulfill the agreement requirement.

I do, however, have some doubts about correctness of the answer choice.
I strongly think that there should not be a comma before the verb has because a comma is not allowed between a subject and a verb in grammar.
I think the sentence would have been more flawless had the comma not been there or had another comma was placed before as well as.
For example, the sentence would look like: 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

Here is my explanation for why I choose D.

UFOs as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has

1. "its" is possessive pronoun referring to the possessive noun"public's"
2. "as well as" do not contribute to making subject plural. In this case the verb will only have to agree with "belief" in the existence of UFOs, which is singular, hence "has" is correctly used.

The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has generated considerable interest in science fiction

We should not consider belief as the subject of the sentence. One must read it along with the existence of belief and their( public's)general curiosity about extraterrestrial life as two separate things that go to form a compound subject when 'and' is used and a singular subject when 'as well as' is used

A. UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has --- 'And' indicates plural; hence 'has' is wrong
B. UFOs and they are generally curious about extraterrestrial life which has --- And indicates plural; hence 'has' is wrong

C. UFOs as well as their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have ----- 'as well as' is an additive. Hence the verb 'have' wrong
D. UFOs as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has -----as well as is an additive, therefore, UFOs is the subject -- has is the right verb
E. UFOs as well as general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have ----- 'as well as' is an additive. Hence the verb 'have' wrong
_________________

1. There is ambiguity in A: "their". Is it antecedent for UFOs or for public's belief. But if it is for second, it has to be singular. A is out.
2. In B it is simply no sentence. B is out.
3. When we use "as well" it is singular, and there has to be "has" at the end of underlined part. Plus "their" is wrong again (look at A). So C, E are out.

D is an answer.

Examples.
David and his friend are going to the cinema.
Davis as well as his friend is going to the cinema.

I cant understand the use of comma before has in option D.
please help SV pair issue in the sentence

I agree with you.

It seems like "," is redundant in all options. Including D.
Or we had to put addional "," before "as well as"

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The original has two mistakes. First, there's a problem with subject/verb agreement. The subject consists of two nouns, belief and curiosity. So there's a plural subject but has is singular. It is also unclear what their refers to - public or UFOs. Logically, it would seem the reference is to the public, but public is singular; so we'd have to use its, not their. Eliminate (A) right away, on the basis of this one mistake. (B) has no main verb. Also, it's not clear who they refers to. (C), (D), and (E) change the sentence's structure so that the word belief becomes the only subject-now we need a singular verb. Only (D) contains the singular verb has.
_________________

I eliminated my options based on the following reason-

A and B uses 'and' and 'has' which is incorrect. The two reasons of the increasing interest is connected by 'and' , which requires a plural 'have'.
C and E uses 'as well as' and has 'have' which is incorrect. The two reasons of the increasing interest is connected by 'as well as' , which requires a singular 'has'.
D uses 'as well as' and uses has. Hence, it is the correct answer.

For ex - The President as well as his security team is staying at the hotel.
Using And - The President and his security team are staying at the hotel.

Can someone help me out this question. Can "it" be used for referring living things? I thought it is referred for non-living things

Posted from my mobile device

"Its" can be used to modify possessive noun in this case public's.
E has a subject verb agreement error. If you join two nouns by as well as you cannot use plural verb.
For eg: The gorilla as well as the orangutan is a primate. - correct
The gorilla as well as the orangutan are primates - incorrect.

The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has generated considerable interest in science fiction

The subject for the helping verb "has" is "the public's widespread belief"
in the existence of UFO's and their general curiosity about extra terre. life--Prepo Phrase.
So this is the reason it can not be a compound subject, because the actual subject is "The public's widespread belief"

A. UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has
their has no antecedent
B. UFOs and they are generally curious about extraterrestrial life which has
they has no antecedent
C. UFOs as well as their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have
their-no antecednet have should be has
D. UFOs as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has
its-public has verb is correct so we keep it for the time being
E. UFOs as well as general curiosity about extraterrestrial life,have
have is wrong here.

So option D finally

My only query is :

Don't we require a comma after "belief" when we have a comma before "has"

OR IMO we even don't require a comma before "has" because there is no comma after belief.

VeritasKarishma : Is structure of choice D is not faulty?

Please help.
_________________

Subject and verb don't have comma between them.
The only way there would be a comma before has is if there were a comma before "as well as".

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.

In this case, as well as is just an after thought.

The public's widespread belief in the existence of UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has generated considerable interest in science fiction

Test: SV agreement
A. UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has
B. UFOs and they are generally curious about extraterrestrial life which has
- SV disagreement + parallel error
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[/quote]

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
_________________