A verb form question tests whether a blank needs a main verb or only describes a noun. Sort the forms, then read to the period for who or what the sentence is about and the verb saying what it does or is. With a new noun after a comma, check whether its verb would start another sentence, because a comma alone can't join two. For forms that describe a noun, check who does what: -ing shows the noun acting, while -ed shows something done to it.
Hints
- Hint 1
In the words before the comma that introduces “a view,” find the main verb. Which verb says what the climate models do?
- Hint 2
Look at the comma before the new noun. What would happen if the words about the view became a complete sentence of their own?
- Hint 3
Ask who gives the support and what receives it. What role does the phrase beginning with by give the sediment cores?
Step-by-step
Count the verbs and test the form
Step 1Sort the forms by job
For a view ______ by recently analyzed sediment cores, sort the forms by job. Which can be main verbs, saying what someone or something does or is? Supports and has supported can, while supporting can't on its own. The -ed form could be a main verb or describe a noun, so we'll test its job in the sentence.
- Step 2
Find the sentence’s main verb
Does the sentence already have a main verb? In climate models indicate, the models are the subject, what the sentence is about, and indicate says what they do. The verb in was not a single, uninterrupted episode belongs to the part starting with that, which tells us what the models indicate. The words before the final comma already form a complete sentence.
- Step 3
Check the new noun after the comma
The comma introduces a view, which names the idea about the humid pulses. Can this noun take its own main verb here? With no joining word such as and, that would create a comma splice, two complete sentences joined by only a comma. So the blank must only describe the view, which sets aside supports and has supported.
- Step 4
Test what happens to the view
Who gives the support, and what gets it? The phrase by recently analyzed sediment cores tells us that the cores give the support and the view gets it. Use the was test by adding was before the -ed form: the view was supported by the cores keeps that meaning. So supported can describe the view, while supporting would make the view give support. Choice B.