Verbal Guru wrote:So why is A incorrect?
The problem is still the plural 'costs' but not because of 'has' but because there is only one cost mentioned in the sentence which is the cost of 'data processing operations'. Had there been another cost mentioned then 'costs' would have been correct but in this case you only need the singular 'cost' to refer to the one cost mentioned in the sentence.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!
Guru:
IMHO, u don't consider 2 things:
1- There can be many costs associated to data processing, so the rising of costs (equipement, personnel) of data processing operations
2- Costs can be referring to operations, which also can have many costs, so the rising of costs of data processing operations (extraction,transformation,load)
In either way, the error is because of "has"
MOreover:
To me, the problem is when to use one or another:
The walking creatures ~= the walking of creatures (different subjects: creatures and walking)
the teacher of English ~= The English teacher (not clear what he teaches in the end, or nationality)
The rising cost = The rising of cost (the subject changes, so the sentence can vary in verb-agreement)
To me, the answer is C, just because of agreement with "has". The rising cost , adjective rising, subject cost, verb has.
(D- is a completely different structure).
Moreover,
in your example:
The rising of flags has been interesting .. correct
the rising of flags have been interesting ... not correct
eg: the class of geometry, in this case, geometry is more info about the subject, class .... same with rising of flags
another ex: the classes of geometry was studied by pitagoras (wrong, no?, classes makes no sense)
the rising of flags, which is ... example correct, refering to rising
the rising of flags, which are .. example correc, refering to flags
I hate SC more and more every day!
Silvia
