Your friend and mentor, … his speech.

Analyze the question

The sentence is: "Your friend and mentor, ........ his speech." We must choose the verb form that agrees with the subject and makes sense with the object "his speech."

Explain the concept: subject-verb agreement

The key is deciding whether "your friend and mentor" is one person or two.

• When two nouns joined by "and" refer to one person, the subject is singular. The article or possessive appears only once, before the first noun, as in "Your friend and mentor."
• If two different people were meant, we would normally see "Your friend and your mentor," and the verb would be plural.

So "Your friend and mentor" is a single person, and it takes a singular verb.

Step-by-step solution

1. Subject: "Your friend and mentor" is singular (one person).
2. The sentence needs an active verb, because "his speech" is the object of the verb.
3. Check each option: • A. has finished – singular and active. It agrees with the subject and takes "his speech" as its object. ✔ • B. is to be finishing – ungrammatical and awkward in English. • C. have finished – plural, so it does not agree with a singular subject. ✘ • D. was finished – passive, so it would need "his speech" to be the subject and cannot take it as an object. ✘

Answer: A. has finished

Sentence: "Your friend and mentor has finished his speech."

Exam tip: When you see "X and Y" with only one article or possessive at the start (e.g., "my teacher and guide"), check whether it describes one person. If it does, use a singular verb. If each noun has its own determiner ("my teacher and my guide"), treat them as two people and use a plural verb.