Sentence Correction

According to scientists at the University of California, the pattern of changes that have occurred in human DNA over the millennia indicate the possibility that everyone alive today might be descended from a single female ancestor who lived in Africa sometime between 140,000 and 280,000 years ago.

(A) indicate the possibility that everyone alive today might be descended from a single female ancestor who
(B) indicate that everyone alive today might possibly be a descendant of a single female ancestor who had
(C) may indicate that everyone alive today has descended from a single female ancestor who had
(D) indicates that everyone alive today may be a descendant of a single female ancestor who
(E) indicates that everyone alive today might be a descendant from a single female ancestor who

OA : D

Can someone explain me why - have (pural verb form in the non-underlined part) OK with the subject the pattern which is singular

Thanks in advance

AbhiS wrote:Can someone explain me why - have (pural verb form in the non-underlined part) OK with the subject the pattern which is singular

Thanks in advance

In this sentence, "have" is used for "changes" as the pronoun that is used with changes.

"pattern" is the subject and the corresponding verb is "indicates"....

theCodeToGMAT wrote:

AbhiS wrote:Can someone explain me why - have (pural verb form in the non-underlined part) OK with the subject the pattern which is singular

Thanks in advance

In this sentence, "have" is used for "changes" as the pronoun that is used with changes.

"pattern" is the subject and the corresponding verb is "indicates"....

I am not sure what you are trying to say. Can you clarify with an example

AbhiS wrote:According to scientists at the University of California, the pattern of changes that have occurred in human DNA over the millennia indicate the possibility that everyone alive today might be descended from a single female ancestor who lived in Africa sometime between 140,000 and 280,000 years ago.

(A) indicate the possibility that everyone alive today might be descended from a single female ancestor who
(B) indicate that everyone alive today might possibly be a descendant of a single female ancestor who had
(C) may indicate that everyone alive today has descended from a single female ancestor who had
(D) indicates that everyone alive today may be a descendant of a single female ancestor who
(E) indicates that everyone alive today might be a descendant from a single female ancestor who

OA : D

In A and B, indicate (plural) does not agree with pattern (singular).
Eliminate A and B.

To express a GENERAL TRUTH -- something that is true now and is expected to remain true in the future -- we use the simple present tense.
The sentence above is expressing a general truth about everyone alive today.
Thus, in C, has descended (present perfect) is inappropriate.
Eliminate C.

In E, descendant from is unidiomatic.
The correct idiom is X is a descendant OF Y.
Eliminate E.

The correct answer is D.

In the non-underlined portion, have occurred (plural) agrees with changes (also plural).
Conveyed meaning:
CHANGES HAVE OCCURRED in human DNA.
The PATTERN of these changes INDICATES that everyone alive today may be a descendant of a single female ancestor.

Can we spot error by making difference between May and might in D and E ?

Because it is indicates , can we not assume we should prefer may to might?
Might may be considered with indicated ?



I am not good at idioms so can not readily depend on idioms!

descendant of-makes sense, not descendant from.