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I thought that it should be B because “us” is plural so B should be “have heard”. Why isn’t it B?<a href=“B”>/QUOTE</a> has nothing to do with tense! “had heard” is in the past perfect tense to indicate that an action occurred in the past before another action. IT MODIFIES THE VERB, NOT THE SUBJECT. These types of verbs are called auxiliary verbs. It describes the tense of the action. In this case, they HAD HEARD the principle talking about the budget BEFORE the staff cuts occurred. Both events took place in the past; to indicate which one came first, you use the past perfect “had heard.”</p>
<p>You are confusing the AUXILIARY form of the verb “to have” (denotes tense) with the normal form of it (means “to possess”). For example, the auxiliary “to be” can denote the progressive tense (ongoing actions): “I am writing a letter.” The regular form of “to be,” however, means what it normally means: “I am a postman.”</p>
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<p>A lot of these “plural nouns” are singular in definition. “News” means “a report of information.” Such nouns include: economics, mathematics, statistics, gymnastics. Nouns that look plural, are singular in definition, and still take on plural verbs include: pants, jeans. I doubt the SAT would test you on something like this. You just need to think a bit abstractly sometimes.</p>
<p>Here’s more information on the subject: [Plural</a> Noun Forms](<a href=“http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/plurals.htm]Plural”>http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/plurals.htm)</p>
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<p>If you can’t differentiate one from the other, one way for you to understand it is to look at the root words, but that may be too unfamiliar to you. Here it goes anyway:</p>
<p>The suffix “-ous” is used in adjectives to indicate characteristics, things that are had. For example, someone that is “anxious” has anxiety. Someone that is desirous has desire (for someone or something). </p>
<p>The suffix “-able” is used in adjectives to indicate worthiness. For example, something that is debatable is worthy of being debated. Something that is likable is worthy of being liked. Basically, you want to debate something that is debatable, and you want to like something that is likable.</p>
<p>So, the correct word is “desirable” because “any mayor” wants to want to (kind of) understand current issues.</p>