A verb form question tests whether the blank needs a main verb, which says what the subject does or is. Find the blank's subject and read all the way to the period to count its main verbs. Then check how the blank connects to the rest of the sentence. A joining word can connect verbs that share a subject, so check for a pair. Main verbs show tense and agree with their subjects; nonfinite verbs, forms without tense, need a main verb elsewhere to complete the sentence.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the second sentence through the period and find the verb that already says what the pot's surface does.
- Hint 2
Look at the words joined by and near the blank. What form does the verb after and take, and what does that tell you about the missing form?
Step-by-step
Count verbs and check the pair
Step 1Find the subject and its verb
The pot's surface is the subject, or what the second sentence is about. Does it already have a main verb, which says what it does? Read to the period: transforms much of its energy into heat gives us one. The surface already has a main verb, so we need to check how the blank connects to it.
- Step 2
Follow the joining word
Why can the blank still be a main verb? In the incoming light and transforms, and links what the surface does to light with what it does to energy. A joining word lets one subject have two main verbs, so we don't rule out another main verb from the count alone. The blank joins transforms as a main verb.
- Step 3
Choose the matching form
Which form can be the first main verb in the pair ending with and transforms? Absorbing, to absorb, and having absorbed can't be main verbs on their own, so none can fill that role. Absorbs is a main verb for what the surface does, giving us absorbs and transforms. Choice D.