"The rising cost is to blame" is more concise and less awkward than "The rising of cost is to blame"

With A, we have "The rising costs....has".

This is wrong because "costs" is plural while "has" is singular. On this basis, we can eliminate A, C, and E. And D is clearly too wordy. Choose C.

EDIT: for spelling.

Testluv wrote:With A, we have "The rising costs....has".

This is wrong because "costs" is a plural non while "has" is a singular pronoun. On this basis, we can eliminate A, C, and E. And D is clearly too wordy. Choose C.

That is not an issue...

Subject is The Rising , wch is singular... so has is fine..

Testluv wrote:With A, we have "The rising costs....has".

This is wrong because "costs" is a plural non while "has" is a singular pronoun. On this basis, we can eliminate A, C, and E. And D is clearly too wordy. Choose C.

That is not an issue...

Subject is The Rising , wch is singular... so has is fine..

i have choosen C

A. has doesnt match with costs so out
B.same as A
C. correct cost and has
D.wordy
E.wordy and plural

yr question is what is wrong with A since underline portion is" The rising of costs" hence the other part of sentence is correct and we cannt change that portion. the other portion contains " has" hence the subject should be singular hence " costs" is plural hence cant be correct.

the question is still untouched

That is not an issue...

Subject is The Rising , wch is singular... so has is fine..

The subject is not "the rising". Would it make sense to say "The rising has x"?

the question is still untouched

....I thought I answered your question in my post above....

Testluv wrote:

That is not an issue...

Subject is The Rising , wch is singular... so has is fine..

The subject is not "the rising". Would it make sense to say "The rising has x"?

The subject is indeed 'rising'. Look at the following 2 sentences and tell me which is correct:

1) The rising of flags has been a problem.
2) The rising of flags have been a problem.

Obviously the correct option is the 1st one. However this would change if the 'of' were to be removed from the middle i.e. 'The rising of flags has been a problem but the rising flags have been a problem.

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!

That's a great explanation Verbal Guru. Thanks.

"The rising has x"--> "rising" can't be subject.

"The rising of x has"-->indeed, here, "rising" can be the subject.

I missed the "of" in my post above.

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

I really appreciate your answers, which make me understand this problem from a wider perspective.

It seems quite easy to choose the right answer A, but it seems rather tough to eliminate the option A for reasonable grounds.

Anyway, our aims are to catch the right answers in the exam as soon as possible. I have learned a lot of things from your passionate replies, which help me establish a "sense" to recognize the subtle difference between the "right" answer and the "wrong" answer.

Thank you guys.