An agreement question tests whether you can match a verb to its subject despite extra phrases. Read the sentence and check whether it needs a main verb, which must have a tense; an -ing form needs a helping verb. Then find the true subject by crossing out extra phrases. Singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs, including any helping verb. Check with it or they, since nearby nouns may be extra details.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the second sentence through to the period and check whether it has a main verb outside the blank. Which part does displayed belong to?
- Hint 2
Look at the extra information between commas. Does as well as join two subjects the same way and does?
- Hint 3
Cross out the phrases that describe or add to the subject, then replace what's left with it or they. Which verb form works with that shortened subject?
Step-by-step
Find the true subject
Step 1Sort the forms and check the blank
Sort the forms by number: indicates and has indicated go with one thing, while indicating can't be a main verb on its own. Does the second sentence need its main verb, the verb saying what its subject does or is? In that the sculpture originally displayed a vivid color scheme, displayed says what the sculpture did, not what the traces do. So the blank must give us the sentence's main verb, which rules out indicating.
- Step 2
Remove phrases that hide the subject
What gives evidence of the sculpture's original colors? Cross out of red pigment across the statue’s cloak, which tells us what the traces are and where they are. Then set aside as well as a narrow band of blue near its collar, the extra information between commas. The phrase as well as doesn't join subjects the way and does, so the band isn't part of the subject. That leaves Microscopic traces as the true subject, the thing the verb is about.
- Step 3
Match the plural subject
The subject Microscopic traces is plural, so its main verb must be plural. Which form works when we replace that subject with they? The forms indicates and has indicated take it, while indicate gives they indicate and gives us the plural main verb we need. Choice A.