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

Can someone explain how the verb tense "has" is correct?

It would seem to me that "belief" and "curiosity" joined by an "and" create a compound subject which would use a plural form of the verb.

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

Thanks for your help.

my explanation is as follows.

Subject and object pronouns cannot refer back to the possesive nouns while possessive pronouns do can refer back to them.

in the above sentence, their cannot refer to public as public is not metioned in the senetence only public's belief is give.

thus the option D had its which is a possesive pronoun and can refer back to possessive noun.
thus D it rite option.

Yes, option D is correct for me too.
But I have a point, please could any one clear it.

Using 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

Its is refering to "belief" ????
If so;
public's widespread belief's general curiosity => isn't it akawrd.....

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

use of idiom "as well as" shows its refers to public's

But public is not mentioned in the sentense .....

How can "it" refer to public ?

For me,
public's widespread belief

Public's + widespread are adjective of "belief" , isn't it ?

For example,
Harry Potter's movie is good, but its for children.

its can never be Harry Potter ???

................. help .... SOS

I agree with D. Has correct "as well as its" and has.
A&B are out because of "and" - both sentences are awkward with the use of "they" and "their"
C & E are out because of "have"

Hope this helps...
It's is a contraction for it is or it has. Your example of "its" in the Harry Potter sentence should say "it's". ...but it's for children is same as but it is for children.
Its is a possessive pronoun meaning, more or less, of it or belonging to it. So in the question above "its" refers to the public's belief.
And there is absolutely, positively, no such word as its'.

A simple test
If you can replace it[']s in your sentence with it is or it has, then your word is it's; otherwise, your word is its.

Another test
Its is the neuter version of his and her. Try plugging her into your sentence where you think its belongs. If the sentence still works grammatically (if not logically) then your word is indeed its.

Examples
It's been good to know you. Contraction: it has
It's a bird! It's a plane! Contraction: it is

The dodo bird is known for its inability to fly. Possessive pronoun: its inability = the dodo bird's inability


Source: https://www.stormloader.com/garyes/its/#top

Thanks ocprep (+1).

But if ,
So in the question above "its" refers to the public's belief.

Then,
public's belief general curiosity is akward .....

My bad..."its" refers to the public...so the sentence reads "public's general curiousity"

Or you can try applying the second rule that replaces "its" with his/her and that should make more sense.

it was very simple for me to eliminate the choices.

for A and B we would need a plural verb "have" so eliminate both

For C,D and E the additives such as "as wellas" "in addition to" should have a singular verb "has"

so without checking the language one can eliminate C and E.

D wins.

hope it helps.

IMO D
A) UFOs and their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life has -Incorrect
Reason-
"Public" is singular so "their cannot be used"
also since "and is being used i.e "belief" and "curiosity" so "have should be there instead of "has"

B)UFOs and they are generally curious about extraterrestrial life which has Incorrect
Same reason as above
C)UFOs as well as their general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, have Incorrect
Reason-
"Public" is singular so "their cannot be used"
also "belief" as well as" curiosity" is singular so "has should be there instead of "have"

D)UFOs as well as its general curiosity about extraterrestrial life, has
Correct
Reason-
Firstly "its " is used for public which is singular
Secondly " belief and " curiosity" is singular..so "has " has been correctly used...
E)UFOs as well as general curiosity about extraterrestrial life,have Incorrect
Reason-"belief" as well as" curiosity" is singular so "has should be there instead of "have"


Hope it helps..

A and B are out straight.

And in the remaining - X as well as Y, have/ has - is/are
here have or hast depend on the X nature, if its is singular then has/is else plural have/are

If connectives like with, together ,as well as, accompanied by etc are used to combine two subjects the verb agrees with the subject mentioned first.
Ex: the President together with his personal secretaries is invited to this function.

If 'and' is used then it will be plural anyway

Correct me if I am wrong..!!

I still don't get this one, will anyone clarify?
The antecedent of the pronoun ITS must exist as a noun in the sentence. In the phrase 'Public's widespread believe', Public does not appear as a noun. And Believe which is the noun cannot be the antecedent of ITS because it would make no sense. So how can this one be the correct answer?

Just FYI i picked (E) because it was the only choice that did not have any pronoun reference errors.

The verb "has" is working for the "abstract" noun "belief."

'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'

Though I chose 'D' as the correct answer, the presence of a comma before 'has' is a bit confusing. Can anyone explain this to me please?

The difference is that "Harry Potter's movie" means movie about Harry Potter but not movie belonging Harry Potter. As I know we should use possessive only if we say about belongings. The pronoun "its" is the same as "public's" so it has clear antecedent

Agree with you J,

I too went with E for the same reason. The "its" in option D should refer to the nearest preceeding noun which is UFOs in our case.

But as per the sentence it should refer to the "public".

Whereas in option E we can use "have" given that "widespread belief in the existence of UFOs" and "general curiosity about extraterrestrial life" are considered two separate things.

People who chose D kindly clarify how to deal with this.

Regards,
Dom.