Avoiding repetition question

[rivaben]

Hello guys, I'm new here but I have been studying english for a while here, in Brazil.

Yesterday, in one of my classes, I was learning strategies to avoid repetition. Here is the exercise I had to do (filling the blanks):

"It's hardly surprising that this book is selling by milions. More and more people seem to be interested in this kind of pseudo literature - at least most of my friends and relatives _______."

I needed to fill the blank with one of this verbs: [are | is | do | does].

Since "most of my friends" are plural, we can get rid of "is" and "does". But what about "are" and "do"?

I'm my opinion we can use both, but each one has a different meaning:

1) if I use "are" I am saying that more and more people seem to be interested, BUT my friends and relatives ARE indeed.

2) If I use "do" I am saying that more and more people seem to be interested, AS my friends and relatives DO (Seem to be).

Am I right? Does any of this options sound awkward for you?

Thank you so much for your help!!!

[Alan]

Strictly, 'do' is the correct pro-form (relating to finite verb 'seem') but conversationally 'are' (relating to the dependent infinitive 'be') would be perfectly acceptable.