dwa zdania do sprawdzenia...PROSZĘ

Prosze o sprawdzenie:

1.A series of break-ins is/are being investigated (liczba pojedyncza czy mnoga?)
2. This coffee tastes a bit strange/strangely (która opcja: strange czy strangely?)

to są zdania z testu...wydaje mi sie ze zaznaczyłam dobrą opcję ale lektor miał inne zdanie na ten temat...prosze o konsultacje...
z góry dziękuje

1) l.poj -> A series...
2) odnosnie zmyslow uzywalo sie bodajze adjectives, mimo ze w jezyku polskim wystepuja przyslowki w takim znaczeniu. (strange powinno byc)

wielkie dzięki...no własnie odnośnie pierwszego zdania to zrobiłam lp. a lektorka uznała ze to źle...a drugie jest faktycznie mylące...jeszcze raz wielkie dzięki

Tell your instructor that a prepositional phrase (of break-ins) is NEVER a subject of a sentence.

I wouldn't say that 'of break-ins' is the subject here but I suppose you don't see anything unusual in the following sentences:

A large number of people think that the earth is flat.
A lot of problems are caused by unemployment.
There are a number of reasons why this happened.

So when 'a series' means just 'several' why not say 'A series of break-ins are...'?

The expression "a number" is plural; however, "the number" is singular.

Hence:

A number of people are....
There are a number of reasons....

But:

The number of people who speak English is countless.


"a lot of" is a set expression that can be and should be - at least in writing -substituted with "much" or "many":

Many problems.... (the subject is "problems)


>So when 'a series'

*A* series - singular subject

In principle you're right, but despite what dictionaries say:
http://www.bartelby.com/64/C003/0264.html
the use of "a series of" with a plural verb is quite frequent. Google gives 179,000 hits for "there was a series of" and 163,000 for "there were a series of".

I even found some debates on that topic:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=493859
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=524325

It seems that "a series of" has recently become (or is gradually becoming) a set expression that can be used just as "a lot of".

To sum up, I think that in the original sequence 'is' fits better than 'are', but I'd accept 'are' (with a slight change of meaning).