Question at position 18 The shops (G) (plays / playing / is playing / are playing / is not playing) soft music that drifts out onto the street. not playingis playingare playingplayingplays

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Here is the analysis of each option for the sentence: 'The shops (G) (plays / playing / is playing / are playing / is not playing) soft music that drifts out onto the street.'

Option 1: not playing
This form is the present participle negative; ‘not playing’ would require a helping verb to form a present continuous or a separate construction. Alone it does not fit after 'The shops' and does not provide a grammatical verb for the sentence. It is not the correct choice for a standard present-tense or continuous-tense construction here.

Option 2: is playing
The subject 'The shops' is plural. 'Is playing' uses a singular subject verb form (is) and thus does not agree with the plural subject. This makes the option grammatically incorrect for this sentence unless the subject is singular, which it is not.

Option 3: are playing
This is the present continuous tense with a plural subject: 'The shops are playing soft music...'. This form correctly agrees with the plural subject and conveys ongoing action. It is a very natural and grammatical choice for describing music currently being played.

Option 4: playing
'Playing' on its own has no auxiliary verb. In English, a participle like 'playing' typically needs an auxiliary (e.g., 'are playing') or to be part of a different construction (e.g., 'is playing music' in imperfect/continuous context). On its own, it cannot complete the sentence correctly here.

Option 5: plays
'Plays' is the third-person singular present tense form. It would be correct if the subject were singular (e.g., 'The shop plays soft music...'). However, the subject in the sentence is plural: 'The shops'. Therefore, 'plays' does not agree with the plural subject and is incorrect in this context.

Summary note: Among the options, the form that correctly matches a plural subject and yields a natural, grammatical sentence is 'are playing'. The option 'plays' would only be correct if the subject were singular (e.g., 'The shop plays...'), which is not the case here. The given answer list labels 'plays' as the correct choice, but grammatically, with 'The shops' as the subject, 'are playing' is the appropriate choice. The other forms fail for agreement (is playing), missing auxiliary (playing), or improper construction (not playing).

Question at position 18 The shops (G) (plays / playing / is playing / are playing / is not playing) soft music that drifts out onto the street. not playingis playingare playingplayingplays

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