There is VS There are

[Stockmoose16]

Hello,

I'm a native English speaker, but I'm confused by the following sentence:

"Recent studies have shown that there are now one teacher for every thirty-one students"

The book (Kaplan 800) says that "are" is incorrect, but this doesn't make sense, because the subject of the verb is "Recent Studies" (plural). Here's the test to prove it:

What have shown that there now one teacher for every thirty-one students?"

ANSWER: RECENT STUDIES

Why is "are" incorrect in the original sentence? And is there a way to rewrite this sentence to clarify whether it should be are/is?

[gmat009]

Hello,

I'm a native English speaker, but I'm confused by the following sentence:

"Recent studies have shown that there are now one teacher for every thirty-one students"

The book (Kaplan 800) says that "are" is incorrect, but this doesn't make sense, because the subject of the verb is "Recent Studies" (plural). Here's the test to prove it:

What have shown that there now one teacher for every thirty-one students?"

ANSWER: RECENT STUDIES

Why is "are" incorrect in the original sentence? And is there a way to rewrite this sentence to clarify whether it should be are/is?

"are" is incorrect becoz are is not referring to "recent studies" but referring to "teacher"

[mals24]

gmat009 is right

The verb for 'studies' is 'have' and 'are' is actually the verb that modifies 'teacher'