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Question

Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Complete the sentence below by supplying the verb form that correctly satisfies the rules of grammatical concord.

Answer:A comprehensive list of qualified candidates, alongside several supporting documents, 【has】 been submitted to the civil service commission.

Answer

The correct auxiliary verb to complete the sentence is 'has'.
The head noun of the sentence is the singular noun 'list'. Expressions introduced by 'alongside', 'as well as', 'together with', or 'in addition to' are prepositional modifiers and do not alter the singular number of the subject. Therefore, the singular auxiliary verb 'has' is required to maintain grammatical concord.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the grammatical subject of the sentence.
The core subject noun head is 'list' (singular), modified by the prepositional phrase 'of qualified candidates'.
Nouns inside prepositional phrases modifying the main subject do not change the number of the subject.
2
Analyze the parenthetical expression introducing additional items.
The phrase 'alongside several supporting documents' is a parenthetical prepositional modifier.
Expressions introduced by prepositions like 'alongside', 'together with', 'as well as', or 'in addition to' are parenthetical and do not pluralize the head subject.
3
Select the correct singular auxiliary verb form to complement 'been submitted'.
The singular present-perfect auxiliary verb 'has' agrees with the singular head subject 'list'.
A singular head subject requires a singular verb form ('has' rather than plural 'have').

Key Concept

Subject-Verb Agreement with Intervening Prepositional and Parenthetical Expressions
Estimated Time:50s
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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