A verb form question with a noun after a comma tests whether the blank gives that noun a main verb or only describes it. Find the subject and main verb, then read to the period. A comma alone can't join two full sentences, but it can attach a noun with describing words. Ask who does the work: an -ing form describes the noun doing it, while an -ed form can describe something done to the noun.
Hints
- Hint 1
Find the subject and main verb before the comma after stop. Do those words already make a full sentence?
- Hint 2
Look at how the words after the comma are attached. Ask whether the punctuation could join two full sentences.
- Hint 3
For the words about GPS units and passengers’ phones, ask whether the data does the work or has something done to it.
Step-by-step
Main verb or describing form
Step 1Find the full sentence
Read the city installed real-time arrival monitors at every bus stop. Who installed the monitors? The city did, so installed is the main verb, the verb that tells what the subject does. Those words already form a full sentence, so we need to decide what the words after the comma can add.
- Step 2
Check the noun after the comma
Can the data ______ from GPS units on each vehicle be another full sentence? No joining word such as and comes before it, and a comma alone can't join two full sentences. A main verb here would make a comma splice, two full sentences joined by only a comma. The data needs describing words instead, so this part adds a detail without becoming a separate sentence.
- Step 3
Decide what happens to the data
In and transmitted wirelessly to passengers’ phones, does the data do the sending? No, the data is sent, and it is also gathered from GPS units rather than gathering anything itself. Both parts describe what's done to the data, so we need an -ed form that describes it.
- Step 4
Test with a helping verb
Try adding were before collected in the data ______ from GPS units on each vehicle. The data were collected from GPS units shows something done to the data, so the form collected describes it without adding a main verb and matches and transmitted wirelessly to passengers’ phones. Choice C.