Question 20·Medium·Form, Structure, and Sense
The award-winning photographer Ana Flores is known for capturing intimate portraits of wildlife in Patagonia. While hiking through the region’s rugged terrain, Flores often spends hours waiting quietly for a puma to appear, her camera resting on a lightweight tripod until ______ ready to take the shot.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For sentence-completion questions testing Standard English conventions, first identify the structure around the blank: ask whether you need a complete clause (subject + verb) or just a phrase. Use the word before the blank (like "because," "when," "until") as a clue that a full clause is needed. Then quickly test each option in the sentence, eliminating choices that create fragments, use the wrong pronoun case, or sound ungrammatical. Read the full sentence with your final choice to confirm it forms a clear, complete idea.
Hints
Look at the word before the blank
Notice that the blank comes right after the word "until." Think about what kind of word or words usually follow "until" in a sentence.
Check if you have a complete idea
Ask yourself: after I fill in the blank, does the part "until ______ ready to take the shot" have both someone it is talking about and what that someone is or does?
Pronoun forms matter
Think about which pronoun forms are used as subjects (doing or being something) and which are used as objects (receiving the action). The clause after "until" needs a subject.
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the sentence structure
Read the whole sentence and notice that the blank comes after the word "until":
"...her camera resting on a lightweight tripod until ______ ready to take the shot."
The word "until" introduces a clause that explains when she will take the shot.
Decide what must follow "until"
After "until," we need a complete clause: something with a subject (who/what the clause is about) and a verb (what that subject is or does).
Here, "ready" is an adjective describing the subject, so we need:
- a subject pronoun (like "she")
- plus a form of the verb "to be" (like "is") before "ready" to make it a complete thought.
Check each option for a complete clause
Test each option in the sentence:
- "until she ready to take the shot" → has a subject but no verb.
- "until her ready to take the shot" → wrong pronoun form and also no verb.
- "until him ready to take the shot" → wrong pronoun form and also no verb.
- "until she is ready to take the shot" → has a subject ("she") and a verb ("is"), making a complete clause.
The only choice that provides both the correct pronoun form and a verb is D) she is, so that is the correct answer.