tomada wrote:As I beat this beyond death...

If choice (B) is correct in the example given by Kevin, then I believe choice (D) would be the best answer for the "booming market for reality television shows" question.

lunarpower wrote:

ssgmatter wrote:Out of the public's interest in the details of and conflicts in other people's lives have grown a booming market for "reality" television shows that are bringing "regular" people onto the television screen with increasing frequency.
(A) other people's lives have grown a booming market for "reality" television shows that are bringing
(B) other people's lives has grown a booming market for "reality" television shows that are bringing
(C) another person's life has grown a booming market for a "reality" television show that is bringing
(D) other people's lives has grown a booming market for "reality" television shows that is bringing
(E) other people's lives has grown a booming market for "reality" television shows that bring

i got down to D and E....please explain what is the problem with E......that bring or that is bringing...

Regards
Phil

this is a rip-off of OG11 #116... and not a very good one. a legitimate case could be made for either (b) or (d).

here's the analysis:

1) THE SUBJECT OF "HAS/HAVE GROWN" IS "A BOOMING MARKET"
the entire cluster of words that precedes this verb is a prepositional phrase, and so can't contain the subject. therefore, this must be a reverse construction, in which the subject comes after the verb.
the subject is therefore "a booming market".

this is also the only subject that is reasonable in context -- nothing else in the sentence has "grown".)

therefore, the correct verb is "has".

simpler analogy:
on the table (is / are) two cell phones.
"on the table" isn't the subject (it's a prepositional phrase, so that's impossible). therefore, the subject, "two cell phones", FOLLOWS the verb. (the correct choice would be "are".)

--

2) THERE IS INSUFFICIENT CONTEXT TO DETERMINE THE SUBJECT OF "IS/ARE BRINGING"

...aaaaaaaannnnndd this is where we start to have a problem.

in the current context, BOTH of these are perfectly reasonable interpretations:

* the market (for reality tv shows) IS bringing people onto the screen increasingly frequently;
* the tv shows themselves ARE bringing people onto the screen increasingly frequently.

they're also both grammatical, since "that" modifiers have a certain degree of freedom in their application -- unlike "which" modifiers, they aren't constrained to modifying the closest noun. (see OG DIAGNOSTIC #50, in the 11th or 12th edition, for another example of a flexible "that" modifier.)

therefore, it is impossible to tell which of these is the intended subject -- both are reasonable in context -- and, therefore, it's impossible to determine whether the verb should be singular or plural.

therefore, either (b) or (d).

--

what's the source of this question?
you would think that people who are essentially copying an OG problem, and substituting different words, could at least make a problem with only one correct answer.
heh.