A verb form question tests whether a word acts as a main verb or describes a noun. Find the subject and read to the period, checking each verb's subject. Present, past, and present perfect forms can be main verbs; an -ing form needs a helping verb to be a main verb, and an -ed form can also describe a noun. Ask, does this subject already have a main verb? Two main verbs for the same subject need a joining word.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the second sentence all the way to the period. Which verb says what the residue analysis does?
- Hint 2
In the words about pigment and burial, check who or what each verb is about. Do those verbs belong to the analysis?
- Hint 3
The word that comes after the blank. Check the blank's own subject, then decide whether that subject still needs a main verb.
Step-by-step
Sort the forms, then find the main verb
Step 1Sort the forms and find the subject
The forms indicates and has indicated can be main verbs, which tell what a subject does or is; an -ing form can't be one alone. The -ed form indicated can be a main verb or describe a noun. What is the second sentence about? Materials scientist Amara Chen's residue analysis names the analysis, so we're deciding whether the blank is its main verb or only describes it.
- Step 2
Read past the pigment and burial clauses
Does the analysis already have a main verb? Set aside that blue pigment was applied before the objects were interred: those verbs tell what happened to the pigment and objects. Since that comes after the blank, the blank still belongs to the analysis. Read on to challenges, which says what the analysis does. The blank must describe the analysis, because its main verb is already there and no joining word links a second one to it.
- Step 3
Check whether the past form can describe
Could indicated be a describing -ed form? If it described the analysis, it would mean the analysis was pointed out or shown. For residue analysis, the analysis was indicated that blue pigment was applied doesn't make sense. The analysis shows the finding, rather than being shown by someone else, so indicated is an extra main verb, as are indicates and has indicated.
- Step 4
Use the describing form
Use indicating, meaning showing, because the -ing form describes the analysis without another main verb. The words that blue pigment was applied then tell us what the analysis shows. Choice D.