Question 60·Hard·Form, Structure, and Sense
While early documentary photographers sought to present objective truth, modern practitioners frequently incorporate staging, arguing that an element of performance can reveal deeper realities, their images ______ between fact and fiction in ways that provoke viewers to question what they see.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For sentence-structure questions like this, first strip away introductory clauses and modifiers until you find the main subject and verb. Then check what comes after each comma: should it be another full clause (requiring proper coordination like "and" or a semicolon), or just a modifier phrase? Eliminate choices that create comma splices, subject-verb disagreement, or extra main verbs, and select the option that fits smoothly into the sentence as the correct type of phrase.
Hints
Locate the main verb
Identify the main subject and main verb of the sentence. After that main verb, anything else should be extra description, not a brand-new main clause.
Check the role of the phrase after the comma
Ask yourself: after the phrase "arguing that an element of performance can reveal deeper realities," should "their images ____ between fact and fiction" be a new sentence, or should it just describe the images in relation to the main idea?
Watch for comma splices and agreement
Try each option and see whether it creates a full sentence (subject + verb) after a comma, which would be a comma splice. Also, when there is a verb, check that it agrees in number with "images."
Think about modifier forms
Consider whether the blank works best with a full verb form (like "are ___" or "has ___") or with a phrase that simply describes "their images" without starting a new sentence.
Step-by-step Explanation
Find the main clause of the sentence
Ignore the introductory "While" clause for a moment. The main clause is:
"modern practitioners frequently incorporate staging"
Everything after that—"arguing that an element of performance can reveal deeper realities, their images ____ between fact and fiction..."—adds extra information about those modern practitioners and their images.
Decide what kind of structure is needed after the comma
Because the main clause already has a subject and verb ("practitioners ... incorporate"), the part starting with "their images" should modify that clause, not start a new independent clause.
That means after "their images" we want a phrase that describes the images, not a full subject-verb unit that would create another sentence joined only by a comma (a comma splice). A modifier here would look like "their images ___ between fact and fiction," functioning like a descriptive add-on rather than a new statement.
Eliminate choices that create a full clause or other errors
Check each verb form:
- "are shifting fluidly" and "shift fluidly" both make "their images" into the subject of a new independent clause ("their images are shifting..." / "their images shift..."), which would be incorrectly joined to the previous clause with just a comma.
- "has shifted fluidly" also makes a new independent clause and has a subject-verb agreement mistake: "images" is plural and should take "have," not "has."
So the blank must be filled with a form that does not create a new independent clause but instead creates a modifier phrase describing "their images."
Choose the form that creates a correct modifier
The choice that turns "their images" into the start of a descriptive phrase, not a new sentence, is "shifting fluidly", giving:
"...arguing that an element of performance can reveal deeper realities, their images shifting fluidly between fact and fiction..."
Here, "their images shifting fluidly..." is a participial/absolute phrase that correctly and smoothly modifies the main idea of the sentence, so "shifting fluidly" is the correct answer.