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Question

Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement

In the paragraph below, which present-tense form of the verb 'indicate' correctly completes the sentence to maintain proper subject-verb agreement?

Answer:The annual migration of monarch butterflies, which spans thousands of miles from North America to central Mexico, 【indicates】 a remarkable capacity for navigation.

Answer

indicates
The correct verb form is the singular present-tense 'indicates'. The grammatical subject of the sentence is the singular noun 'migration'. The plural nouns 'butterflies' and 'miles' are part of intervening prepositional and relative clauses and do not affect the singular number of the subject.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Locate the grammatical subject of the clause containing the blank.
The subject is the singular noun 'migration'.
The prepositional phrase 'of monarch butterflies' and the relative clause 'which spans thousands of miles...' are intervening modifiers that do not change the number of the subject.
2
Determine the correct verb form that agrees in number with the subject.
The singular verb form 'indicates' is required to agree with the singular subject 'migration'.
In the present tense, singular subjects require verbs ending in '-s', whereas plural subjects require the base form without '-s'.

Key Concept

Subject-Verb Agreement with Intervening Modifiers
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement

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