A verb form question with a blank between commas tests whether you need a main verb or a describing form. Find the subject, then read to the period and count its main verbs. A sentence needs a main verb, but words that only describe a noun don’t add another one. For those words, check who does what: use -ing if the noun acts and -ed if something acts on it. A familiar ending can still do the wrong job.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read beyond the second comma and find the verb that says what Art Nouveau did.
- Hint 2
Look at the phrase beginning with by. What sets the style apart?
Step-by-step
Count verbs and check who acts
Step 1Find the subject and main verb
Art Nouveau is the subject, the thing the sentence is about, so let’s read past the inserted words all the way to the period. Does the sentence already have a main verb, a verb that says what the subject does or is? Yes: it gained popularity across Europe, so gained is its main verb. We need to see what job is left for the blank inside the commas.
- Step 2
Identify the blank’s job
The words a style of architecture rename Art Nouveau inside the commas. Could that description be a clause, a group with its own subject and main verb? There’s no which or that to open one, and no and to link another main verb to gained. So the blank must describe the style, while distinguishes and was distinguished would add main verbs that the sentence has no way to join.
- Step 3
Check what sets the style apart
What does by sweeping curves and interlaced floral patterns tell us? The curves and patterns set the style apart, so distinguishing, meaning setting something apart, gives the style the wrong job. Try the was test: the style was distinguished by its curves and patterns makes sense because the style is being set apart. That means distinguished works as an -ed describing form without was, completing the description without adding another main verb. Choice D.