Out of the public’s interest in the details of and conflicts in
other people’s lives have grown a booming market for “reality” television shows that are bringing “regular” people onto the television screen with increasing frequency.
A. other people’s lives have grown a booming market for “reality” television shows that are bringing
B. other people’s lives has grown a booming market for “reality” television shows that are bringing
C. another person’s life has grown a booming market for a “reality” television show that is bringing
D. other people’s lives has grown a booming market for “reality” television shows that is bringing
E. other people’s lives has grown a booming market for “reality” television shows that bring
Which one is the correct answer and why ?
This one of very good hard level questions. Answer debate is between 3 and 4 (C and D) to make it simpler, rest all looks obvious.
i.e. Subject "Out of the public’s interest " is singular so "has" .. "increasing frequency" means it has to be progressive tense so E is out.. debate between C and D ..
Get rid of all the stuff that separates subjects and verbs in this sentence and see what you're left with: Out of the... interest... has grown a... market... that is bringing. If you don't get distracted by the modifiers and extra phrases, you'll see that both subjects in the sentence (interest and market) are singular. Eliminate (A) and (B) for including obviously plural verbs, and (E) as well since that bring is plural. (C) distorts the meaning of the original sentence by describing only one television show, and you're left with (D).
An 800 test taker expects to see sentences in which the subject and verb are separated by intervening phrases or modifiers and remembers to keep track of the subject(s) throughout the sentence.
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