Question 31·Medium·Form, Structure, and Sense
Alicia Belfast, an archivist at the National Museum, explains that oral histories are valuable because they not only preserve facts but also ______ the emotions and perspectives that accompany those facts.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For Standard English convention questions like this, quickly identify the subject and any key conjunctions (such as "and," "or," "not only... but also"). Underline the subject, then circle the verbs that go with it and check for correct subject-verb agreement in number (singular vs. plural) and tense. When you see correlative pairs like "not only... but also," make sure the words or phrases on both sides are in the same grammatical form—especially the verbs—then eliminate any answer choices that break this parallel structure or shift tense unnecessarily.
Hints
Locate the subject and existing verb
Focus on the part of the sentence that says "they not only preserve facts." Who does "they" refer to, and is the subject singular or plural?
Notice the paired structure
Look at the phrase "not only ... but also". What two elements is this structure connecting, and what grammatical form does the first one take?
Match the verb form
Compare each answer choice with the existing verb "preserve" after "they." Which option can follow "they" in the same tense and form as "preserve" without changing the sentence structure?
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify what the blank is doing in the sentence
Look at the structure around the blank: "they not only preserve facts but also ______ the emotions and perspectives..." The word in the blank must be a verb that goes with "they" (referring to oral histories) and pairs with "preserve."
Find the subject and existing verb
The subject of the clause is "oral histories," which is plural. The verb already given is "preserve" (as in "they preserve facts"), which is present tense and in the base form used with a plural subject ("they preserve").
Use parallel structure with "not only... but also"
The phrase "not only... but also" is a correlative conjunction. The words or phrases it joins should be in the same grammatical form. Here, it joins two verbs: "preserve" and the verb in the blank. So the blank must be filled with a verb in the same form and tense as "preserve" (present tense, base form, used with "they").
Test each answer choice for agreement and parallelism
Check each option with "they":
- "they captures" (wrong: singular verb)
- "they capture" (correct: plural verb form matching "they preserve")
- "they captured" (wrong: past tense, breaks parallel with "preserve")
- "they capturing" (wrong: -ing form does not match the simple verb "preserve"). Only B) capture matches the subject and keeps the parallel structure with "preserve."