Question 210·Hard·Form, Structure, and Sense
In an effort to preserve endangered languages, a coalition of linguists, community elders, and digital archivists ______ developing an open-source platform that allows speakers to record, annotate, and share oral histories in their native tongues.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For verb questions in sentence completions, first underline the subject and decide if it is singular or plural, ignoring extra descriptive phrases. Then scan the answer choices: eliminate any options that do not match the subject in number, and use context clues (words like now, today, in recent years, or descriptions of ongoing projects) to choose the tense and aspect that best match the time frame. This two-step check—number first, then time—lets you quickly narrow to the one grammatically correct and context-appropriate option.
Hints
Find the true subject
Ignore the descriptive phrase after the commas and focus on the core noun doing the action. What word comes right before 'of linguists, community elders, and digital archivists'?
Check singular vs. plural
Ask yourself: is that subject treated as one group or as several separate people? That will determine whether you need a singular or plural verb form.
Consider the time frame of the action
Does the sentence suggest a completed past action, a current one-time action, or an effort that has been going on for a period of time and still matters now? Pick the verb form that best matches that idea.
Step-by-step Explanation
Locate the subject of the verb
Find who is doing the action. The sentence says: 'a coalition of linguists, community elders, and digital archivists ______ developing...' The core subject is 'a coalition' (the long phrase after it just describes who is in the coalition).
Decide if the subject is singular or plural
'Coalition' is a collective noun that refers to one group made up of many people. In this sentence it is treated as a single unit, so the subject is singular and must take a singular verb form (like 'has'), not a plural form (like 'have').
Match verb number and choose the best tense
Eliminate any plural verb forms that do not match a singular subject. Also think about time: this is an ongoing project that likely started in the past and continues now, which is best expressed with a present perfect progressive form (has/have been developing), rather than a simple present progressive ('are developing') or past progressive ('were developing').
Confirm the only choice that fits both number and time
With a singular subject 'a coalition' and an ongoing action that began in the past, the only choice that is both singular and in the appropriate tense is B) has been, giving the sentence: '...a coalition of linguists, community elders, and digital archivists has been developing an open-source platform...'