SC: Sleeping pills had been showing up with regularity

[LeneW88]

Sleeping pills had been showing up with regularity as a factor in traffic arrests, sometimes involving drivers who later claim that they have no memory of getting behind the wheel after ingesting the pills.

A. had been showing up with regularity as a factor in traffic arrests
B. had been showing up with regularity as factors in traffic arrests
C. have been showing up with regularity as a factor in traffic arrests
D. have been showing up with regularity as factors in traffic arrests
E. have been showing up with regularity in traffic arrests

(C) CORRECT. This choice correctly uses the present perfect tense "have been showing up" to indicate an event that started in the past and continues into the present. This choice also correctly uses the phrase "as a factor" rather than "as factors" because sleeping pills constitute only one factor in arrests.

The correct choice says "sleeping pills" constitute only on factor. However, I remember a similar PREP question in which the plural subject requires plural "examples".

Sculpted boulders found at Lepenski Vir, an example of the earliest monumental art known from central
and Western Europe, includes 15 figures with human features similar to Upper forms and to Middle
Eastern stone figurines.

A. Vir, an example of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe, includes
B. Vir, examples of the monumental art known from central and western Europe, include earliest of
monumental art known from central and western Europe, include
C. Vir are examples of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe and includes
D. Vir are examples of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe, including

A. The plural subject, sculpted boulders does not agree with the singular verb includes; the plural
subject boulders does not clearly agree with the singular appositive an example. If the boulders
together constitute a single example, it would be better to begin the sentence with a phrase such
as The group of boulders or at least The boulders.

B. Correct. The plural subject boulders agrees in number with both the plural appositive examples and
the plural verb, include.

I'm really confused... How can i decide whether a singular or a plural form should be used??

[RonPurewal]

the boulders are actually different examples.
if there are, say, fourteen boulders, i can point at them and say, "here you can see 14 examples of primitive art."

the appearances of sleeping pills are NOT different factors. they're the same factor.
if you obtained 14 arrest records from the police department and circled the stuff about sleeping pills on each one, you could NOT point to them and say, "here are 14 different factors in these arrests."
instead, you'd say something like "i found the same factor 14 times."

[CrystalSpringston]

Ron, I eliminated C because I thought the subject didn't agree with the verb.
Acording to the explanation, It takes "sleeping pills" as one factor showing up in the traffic arrests. If so, why do we use "HAVE" ? Sleeping pills should have been taken as one specific thing .

Is it wierd to say:
Subject HAVE.......AS A FACTOR......

I know correct answer is always correct. Pls help me know where I am stuck.
Thank you.

[Chelsey Cooley]

'have' versus 'has' is a matter of grammar. Subject/verb agreement always goes with whether the subject is grammatically singular or plural, regardless of logic. That's one reason we write (in American English)

'The team wants to take a week off'

rather than

'The team want to take a week off'.

Even though 'team' logically refers to many people, it's a grammatically singular word, and grammar wins. In this case 'sleeping pills' is grammatically plural, so we want a plural verb.

But if you look at Ron's argument about 'factor' and 'factors', notice that this one is all about logic. 'Factor' isn't the subject, so we don't need to worry about grammatical subject/verb agreement. It's just a question of whether it makes logical sense to refer to multiple sleeping pills as a singular factor, which luckily it does. Grammar rules are strict and sometimes override logic, but when there's no particular grammar rule for a situation but only one choice makes sense logically, pick that one.

[CrystalSpringston]

'have' versus 'has' is a matter of grammar. Subject/verb agreement always goes with whether the subject is grammatically singular or plural, regardless of logic. That's one reason we write (in American English)

'The team wants to take a week off'

rather than

'The team want to take a week off'.

Even though 'team' logically refers to many people, it's a grammatically singular word, and grammar wins. In this case 'sleeping pills' is grammatically plural, so we want a plural verb.

But if you look at Ron's argument about 'factor' and 'factors', notice that this one is all about logic. 'Factor' isn't the subject, so we don't need to worry about grammatical subject/verb agreement. It's just a question of whether it makes logical sense to refer to multiple sleeping pills as a singular factor, which luckily it does. Grammar rules are strict and sometimes override logic, but when there's no particular grammar rule for a situation but only one choice makes sense logically, pick that one.

Thank you Chelsey!
Maybe the best way to be familiar with such construction is to read raw English material as more as possible . Not everything can be strictly explained only by grammar. What about below sencence? Is it the same logic to say "a bike" rather than "bikes"?

Three out of Four Americans who have cars own a bike.

[Jie YiW303]

Hi Ron,

I have a question about the second SC question above. What's wrong with the choice D?
Is it because 'including ' can only modify the noun closed to it, it cannot modify the subject sculpted boulders??

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

There's a meaning ambiguity in answer D: the word 'including' could be referring 'earliest monumental art' rather than to 'sculpted boulders'. Actually, 'including' is an unusual word, and doesn't operate quite like a regular comma - ing modifier. Take a look at this post: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p102407