Question 223·Easy·Form, Structure, and Sense
The editorial team at the local newspaper meets every Monday. During the meeting, ______ reviews reader submissions and decides which stories will be assigned.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For pronoun questions, first decide what job the missing word does (subject, object, possessive, etc.) by looking at the words immediately around the blank. Then find its antecedent (the noun it replaces) in the previous sentence or clause and determine whether that noun is singular or plural. Finally, eliminate any choices that have the wrong pronoun type (like possessive instead of subject) or that do not agree in number with the verb form given in the sentence.
Hints
Check the role of the missing word
Look at the words right after the blank. What part of speech must go before "reviews" to make a complete clause?
Find the noun the blank refers to
Ask yourself: who or what is doing the reviewing and deciding in the second sentence? Look back at the first sentence for that noun.
Match number and verb form
Is the noun from the first sentence treated as one unit or many individuals? Which pronoun choice works with the verb form "reviews"?
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify what the blank is doing in the sentence
Look at the structure: "During the meeting, ______ reviews reader submissions and decides..." The word in the blank must be the subject of the verbs "reviews" and "decides." So you need a subject pronoun (like "he," "she," or "they"), not a possessive or describing word.
Find the noun the pronoun refers back to
The previous sentence says: "The editorial team at the local newspaper meets every Monday." That whole group—"the editorial team"—is the thing that reviews submissions and decides about stories. So the blank must be a pronoun that replaces "the editorial team."
Decide on the correct type and number of pronoun
Collective nouns like "team" are usually treated as singular in American English when the group is acting as a single unit. Also, the verb given is singular: "reviews" (not "review"). That means the pronoun must be singular and must function as a subject, so it has to match "reviews" correctly.
Test each choice with the verb
Substitute each option: "They reviews" (wrong: plural pronoun with singular verb), "Their reviews" (wrong form: possessive, not a subject), "Those reviews" (wrong form: demonstrative, not a subject), and "It reviews" (correct: singular subject pronoun matching a singular collective noun and singular verb). So the correct answer is “It.”