After years of inconclusive study, not to mention contention

Question

After years of inconclusive study, not to mention contention from critics who argue the programs have
not worked, the public has been given the right to review the evidence for themselves.
(A) Change “has” to “have”
(B) No error

I wanted to know whether a is the answer?Public is singular or plural?

Dreamy · Answer

Doesn't themselves refer public as plural. I want someone else to explain this.

shrouded1 · Answer

I think with certain words like "public", both the singular and plural usage work. But probably makes sense to keep usage consistent within the sentence so I would choose (A).

In general, my understanding was that collective nouns like "group", "gang", "jury" etc take the singular verb, but then I stumbled across the following :

https://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=280583&jid=ENG&volumeId=21&issueId=01&aid=280582

This paper seems to point out "public" as a collective which can take both singular and plural. Would be great someone else can comment on this.

suyashjhawar · Answer

Another one
The House of Representatives have been meeting for three days straight tomorrow.
(A) No error
(B) Error Correct Verb:has?

For most of us,if we get clarity on this,half the SC is over.Wow i am loving this forum more and more.So much to learn to crack the ultimate!.

suyashjhawar · Answer

shrouded1-That link was really useful.

Thabk · Answer

From mgmat sc pg-41,
If you want to indicate the many individual parts of the totality , use a plural verb. If you want to indicate the totality itself, use singular verb.

The majority of the students in this class are hard workers
In the Senate, the majority has coalesced in to a unified voting block.

BKimball · Answer

On the GMAT, collective nouns such as "public," "team," or "class" are almost always singular and should therefore be matched with a singular verb. There are some rare instances in which they should be plural, but for GMAT purposes it's pretty safe to say you should consider them to be singular. Seems like the GMAT question development team IS big on unity!

Be careful with this, though: In British usage, these nouns are typically considered plural. On the GMAT, they are not!

After years of inconclusive study, not to mention contention

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