deucebigalow and
DharLog , this question is very hard. The answer is A.
The whole phrase "Why painting the face and perfuming the body should have persisted throughout recorded history" is the subject. When a phrase is the subject of a sentence, it takes a singular verb.
Answer B is incorrect. Look carefully. In B, the underlined verb in "painting the face" and "perfuming the body"
could be persistent suggests that the painting and the perfuming could display the characteristic of persistence. An action such as painting cannot be persistent. The painter can be persistent. She can keep painting during a hurricane outside her studio. The act of painting itself cannot be persistent.
Answer B changes the meaning of the sentence, too, quite subtly. "How do human beings evolve?" and "Why do human beings evolve?" do not ask the same question.
DharLog , it is true that "persistence of face painting AND of body painting" would have been better. In that case, persistence would have been a singular subject correctly taking the singular "has been."
As E stands, it is hard to tell whether "persisting" captures both face painting and body painting.
Finally, although "persistence" would cure the subject/verb problem (and would cure ambiguity about whether this subject is singular or plural), this sentence is trying to convey that specialists wonder about the
reason for X,
WHY X continues to exist.
Hope that helps.
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