The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs

Question

The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs and tension- free lifestyle, along with the inability to pay the high rentals in down–town have turned  the middle income families hunt for mortgaged houses in the suburban communities. 
 
(A) The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs and tension- free lifestyle, along with the inability to pay the high rentals in down–town have turned

(B) The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs and tension- free lifestyle and for the inability to pay the high rentals in down–town have turned

(C) The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs, tension- free lifestyle together with the inability to pay the high rentals in down–town has turned

(D) The growing demands for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs and tension-free lifestyle in addition to the inability to pay the high rentals in down–town is turning

(E) The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs and tension- free lifestyles as well as the inability to pay the high rentals in down–town are turning

hemanthp · Answer

Tough one. Took 2 mins to get to it. Going with C. Daagh, let me know the OA.

scheol79 · Answer

C. Because the letter C looks funky. :-D

I originally answered D, not spotting Demands, but it's clearly wrong. Still a tough question. OA plz

hemanthp · Answer

Scheol, I caught that one too

. But didn't notice it until I finished writing up the explanations.

shekharvineet · Answer

C it is. Good question. A nice trap for S-V agreement.
I would have preferred D but its wrong as it uses the word "demands" in place of "demand".

jimmy86 · Answer

The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs and tension- free lifestyle, and the inability to pay the high rentals in down–town have turned the middle income families hunt for mortgaged houses in the suburban communities.

The growing demand ....along with the ability to pay high rentals.....  has turned

The subject GROWING DEMAND should take a singular HAS TURNED

and there is only one option with this structure

SO IMO C - 
What is OA?

daagh · Answer

OA is C; Incidentally, the weird looking marker C is because of some problem in the system, which I do not know how to rectify.

PTK · Answer

C. dont be allured by phrases inside the S and V. I have repaired your C)

vigneshpandi · Answer

I initially chose D by not looking at the "demands"....but now agree that C is correct..

gmat1011 · Answer

quick question: what does this sentence mean? "turned/turning" the middle income families hunt for mortgaged houses in the suburban communities ----> what is the hunt being turned into? is "turn" being used here like "impact" or "affect" in a weird way? the sentence seems incomplete. also i think it should be families' hunt in the original question ---> is the original question set up this way?

daagh · Answer

The growing demand (the singular subject) of blah blah  has turned  (the singular verb)  families  (the object) to hunt( an infinitive ) for mortgaged houses in the suburban communities. The - to  - in the infinitive is elliptical and understood

kt00381n · Answer

Got this one wrong

But very good question! thanks

MBAhereIcome · Answer

"the growing demain (for x,y and z) together with A has"

the above is the correct construction. C it is.

metallicafan · Answer

+1 C

Only "and" makes that singular nouns require a plural verb.
Constructions such as "along with" cannot do that.

tuanquang269 · Answer

Only C obey the rule of S-V agreement.

shankar245 · Answer

The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs and tension- free lifestyle, and the inability to pay the high rentals in down–town have turned the middle income families hunt for mortgaged houses in the suburban communities.

growing demand is the singular subject,
for ->preposition 
Verb must agree with singular subject hence has

Generally
if we have a sentence like this
Jack and jill are friends - we have two subjects here and hence we have the plural verb "are"

but
In the statement above we have only one subject .-Hence "is"
I was confused seeign "and" but that is not going to affect the plural verb

shankar245 · Answer

if we modify the sentence ,would this be correct?

The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs and tension- free lifestyle, and the inability to pay the high rentals in down–town have turned the middle income families hunt for mortgaged houses in the suburban communities.

Now we have conjugated the nouns and therefore plural verb "are"
is this correct?
Guys pls advice,

saikarthikreddy · Answer

Good question intially selected D not recognising the SV agreement error .C is the answer .

daagh · Answer

shankar245 wrote

Yes; perfect

i3rook · Answer

C

S-V agreement test, with the growing "demand" being the singular subject

The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The growing demand for cheaper houses, unpolluted environs

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