use of "has" with a subject having two phrases connected by "and"

Question

" The centralisation of the internet and the growing importance of data has given rise to what Frank Pasquale of the University of Maryland, in a recent paper published in American Affairs, calls a “Jeffersonian/Hamiltonian divide” among critics of big tech." The above sentence has been taken from the current issue of The Economist. My query is "The centralisation of the Internet" and "the growing importance of data" are the two phrases connected by "and", and are acting as subject for the verb "has given". May I know why "have given rise" is not used here?

Experts please help

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Pawan, do the options given, ask you to choose between  has  and  have ? In other words, is  has  a part of underlined portion?

LordStark · Answer

Hi Ashish  EducationAisle

It is a sentence taken from The Economist magazine. It is not a SC question.

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Pawan, incidentally,  Economist  also happens to be the name of a  GMAT tutoring firm , and hence the confusion:).

In few rare cases, phrases connected by  and  may be construed as a  single  activity, if the two phrases are  linked  by some common thread. For example:

Breaking the house and entering it,   has   always been a child's play for the notorious thief .

Here, while there are  two  phrases connected by  and , these phrases are part of the same sequence of events, and hence,  has  works fine.

While Official guide has a couple of such instances, thankfully this usage ( singular/plural ) has not been tested on the exam as yet (basically this was  not  a part of the underlined portion).

Hence, in most likelihood, you will  not  be required to take a call, in such instances. For the most part, you can safely choose the  plural  verb.

use of "has" with a subject having two phrases connected by "and"

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