Quote:
A broad range of surveys studying the effectiveness of abstinence-only education has identified at least three misconceptions thought to lead to a greater likelihood of unplanned pregnancy , the primary concern of such education.
A. surveys studying the effectiveness of abstinence-only education has identified at least three misconceptions thought to lead to a greater likelihood of unplanned pregnancy.
B. surveys studying the effectiveness of abstinence-only education have identified at least three misconceptions thought to be greater than the likelihood of unplanned pregnancy.
C. surveys studying the effectiveness of abstinence-only education, having identified at least three misconceptions that are thought to lead to a greater likelihood of unplanned pregnancy.
D. surveys studying the effectiveness of abstinence-only education, and has identified at least three misconceptions thought to lead to a greater likelihood of unplanned pregnancy.
E. surveys, studying the effectiveness of abstinence-only education, has identified at least three misconceptions they think to be the cause of of greater likelihood of unplanned pregnancy.
The crux of this question is just a matter of subject verb agreement, more specifically whether "broad range of surveys" is singular or plural. It is of course, singular, much as many collectives are (the flock of geese
is flying, my family
is dysfunctional). Based on this, one can eliminate option B.
Options C through E are relatively easier to eliminate, so long as you focus on whether the sentence is communicating its intended meaning.
C is not a sentence. The surveys, having identified misconceptions.....did what with them? The key action communicated by the sentence is that the misconceptions were identified, hence it does not make sense to use the subordinate "having".
D is similarly incorrect because of the unnecessary 'and', making it flat out an invalid sentence.
E once again fails on Subject Verb Agreement. It correctly uses the word 'has' but then switches to the plural "they", which defeats the logic altogether.
One tip: Resist the temptation to automatically eliminate A on SC questions because "there muse be something wrong".