of construction- Symptoms

[rajbhalla]

I have modified the original question which is very similar to following sentence.

On rare occasions, a wide variety of symptoms has been reported to occur either alone or together in groups that appeared to be based on allergic-type reactions, which may rarely be fatal.

And correct answer is
a wide variety of symptoms have been reported

I am confused between have and has. Since this is "of" construction "variety of symptoms" i used variety as subject and picked "has", but answer says symptoms as subject and "have" .
so,What is the subject ? variety or symptoms. Please guide.


Thanks,
Raj

[sunny.jain]

would, you please post the Question.

[sunny.jain]

would you please post the Question.

[RonPurewal]

I have modified the original question which is very similar to following sentence.

On rare occasions, a wide variety of symptoms has been reported to occur either alone or together in groups that appeared to be based on allergic-type reactions, which may rarely be fatal.

And correct answer is
a wide variety of symptoms have been reported

I am confused between have and has. Since this is "of" construction "variety of symptoms" i used variety as subject and picked "has", but answer says symptoms as subject and "have" .
so,What is the subject ? variety or symptoms. Please guide.


Thanks,
Raj

you should consider this in the same way you'd consider "a large number of symptoms". just think of it as an idiomatic expression that's equivalent to "a large number of..."
in other words, "a wide variety" may be taken as a specification of quantity, not unlike sticking an actual number in front of "symptoms".