Question 56·Medium·Form, Structure, and Sense
City planning officials as well as neighborhood activists ______ that the proposed rezoning plan favors commercial interests over affordable housing, prompting them to request a new public hearing.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For Standard English subject-verb agreement questions, first strip the sentence down to its core subject and verb: mentally remove extra phrases like “as well as…,” prepositional phrases, and descriptive clauses. Replace the full subject with a pronoun (“he,” “she,” or “they”) to decide if it’s singular or plural. Then quickly eliminate any choices whose verb form does not correctly follow that pronoun (for example, “they claim,” not “they claims” or “they has claimed”). Finally, check that the tense (simple present, past, etc.) fits the time frame implied by the sentence, prioritizing simple forms unless the context clearly calls for a different aspect.
Hints
Locate the true subject
Focus on the words before the blank: who is doing the action in this sentence? Ignore the prepositional phrases and look at the core nouns.
Decide if the subject is singular or plural
Look closely at “City planning officials as well as neighborhood activists.” If you replaced that whole phrase with a pronoun, would you use “it” or “they”?
Match the verb form to the subject
Once you know whether the subject is singular or plural, eliminate any answer choices whose verb form would not correctly follow that pronoun (for example, what verb form goes with “they”?).
Consider the time frame
Is the sentence describing a completed past action or an ongoing/general stance? Use that to decide between simple present and other tenses.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the sentence’s subject
First, find who is doing the action. The subject is “City planning officials as well as neighborhood activists.” Both “officials” and “activists” are plural nouns, so the overall subject is plural. You can replace the whole subject with “they” to check: “They ___ that the proposed rezoning plan…”
Match the verb to a plural subject
Because the subject is plural (“they”), the verb must also be plural. In the simple present tense, the plural form does not end in -s (for example: “they run,” “they argue,” “they claim”), while the singular form does (“he runs,” “she argues,” “it claims”). Immediately, this tells you that any singular verb forms are incorrect.
Check each option for subject-verb agreement
Now test each option with the pronoun “they”:
- “They claims” (A) is wrong because “claims” is singular.
- “They is claiming” (C) is wrong because “is” is singular.
- “They has claimed” (D) is wrong because “has” is singular (it should be “have claimed” for a plural subject).
Only one option uses a plural form that fits with “they.”
Confirm the tense and aspect fit the context
The sentence describes an ongoing, currently relevant position of officials and activists, introduced with “prompting them to request a new public hearing,” which suits the simple present tense used for general or current claims. The only option that is both plural and in the appropriate simple present tense is “claim.”