Question 133·Easy·Form, Structure, and Sense
Like many early 20th-century writers, Zora Neale Hurston documented the customs of small American towns. Her vivid descriptions of daily life _____ readers to understand the richness of African American folklore.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For verb-form questions like this, first locate the subject and ignore modifiers so you can clearly tell if it’s singular or plural. Then determine the time frame: is the sentence about a past event, a future plan, or a general, ongoing truth? Quickly eliminate any choices with the wrong tense or that don’t agree in number with the subject. When dealing with authors, books, or artworks, remember that we usually use the simple present tense to describe what a work does ("the novel shows," "the painting reveals").
Hints
Check the subject
Focus on the phrase just before the blank: what is the main noun (not the adjectives or prepositional phrases) that the verb must agree with?
Think about number (singular vs. plural)
Is that main noun singular or plural? Which verb form in the options matches that number?
Consider the time frame of the action
Is the sentence describing something that only happened in the past, something that will happen in the future, or a general effect that is true whenever people read her work?
Eliminate by tense and agreement
Once you know both the number of the subject and the time frame, cross out any options that are the wrong tense or that do not agree with a plural subject.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify what part of speech is missing
Look at the structure of the sentence around the blank: "Her vivid descriptions of daily life _____ readers to understand..." The blank comes after the subject and before the object, so it must be a verb that describes what the descriptions do to the readers.
Find the true subject of the verb
The phrase before the blank is "Her vivid descriptions of daily life." The core noun here is "descriptions." The words "Her," "vivid," and "of daily life" are modifiers. So the subject is the plural noun "descriptions," not "life."
Decide on the correct verb tense
The first sentence says "Hurston documented the customs..." using the past tense to describe what she did. The second sentence, however, talks about what her writing generally does for readers—even today. For ongoing or general truths about a work (books, art, writing), we usually use the simple present tense: it describes what the work does now, not only what it did in the past.
Match subject-verb agreement and tense to choose the answer
We need a verb that is (1) in the simple present tense and (2) agrees with the plural subject "descriptions."
- "helps" is present tense but agrees with a singular subject, not plural.
- "helped" is past tense, which does not match the general, ongoing effect we want.
- "will help" is future tense, suggesting the effect has not started yet.
- "help" is the simple present form that correctly goes with a plural subject.
Therefore, the correct answer is help.