A growing number of mature readers had been turning to young adult fic

Torn with A and B. Does “growing number of...” pair with singular verb “has”?

Official Explanation

The underlined portion of the sentence uses the past perfect tense "had been turning," implying that the turn to young adult fiction was in the past before some other past action. However, there is no other past action here. The bringing of revenue happened at the same time as the change in readers' tastes. The correct answer will fix this verb tense problem.

(A), (C), and (E) retain "had been," while (B) and (D) use "have been."

Since (A), (C), and (E) keep the past perfect, they can be eliminated. There is no other past action in the sentence.

(B) and (D) both bring the first part of the sentence into the present with "have been turning," but (D) puts the second part into the past ("brought"), so it can be eliminated.

(B) is the only choice that puts both parts of the sentence in a congruent time frame, so it's correct.

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