Question 83·Medium·Form, Structure, and Sense
While the earliest transatlantic telegraph cables took weeks to lay across the ocean floor, the feat was celebrated worldwide, and the engineers' resilience—not the formidable machinery—______ credited with the project's ultimate success.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For this type of SAT question, first strip out any interrupting phrases set off by commas or dashes to find the core subject and verb. Identify the head noun (ignoring possessive nouns like “engineers'”) and decide whether it is singular or plural, then check the rest of the sentence to see whether the time frame is past, present, or something else. Finally, choose the option whose verb form matches both the subject’s number and the sentence’s tense, and quickly eliminate any verbs that are the wrong number (singular vs. plural) or the wrong tense.
Hints
Clear away the extra information
Briefly ignore the words between the dashes (“— not the formidable machinery —”) and read the sentence without them. What is left right before the blank, and what is that describing?
Decide on singular vs. plural
Focus on the phrase “the engineers' resilience.” Is the important noun here “engineers” or “resilience”? Is that noun singular or plural?
Check the time frame
Look at the other verbs in the sentence (“took,” “celebrated”). Do they describe something happening now or something that already happened? The verb in the blank should match that time frame.
Step-by-step Explanation
Locate what the blank is doing in the sentence
Focus on the clause with the blank: “the engineers' resilience— not the formidable machinery— ______ credited with the project's ultimate success.” Here, the blank is part of a passive verb phrase (“___ credited”), so you are choosing the correct verb form to complete that verb.
Find the true subject of the verb
Ignore the extra information between the dashes: “— not the formidable machinery —” is just an interrupter. Read the core part: “the engineers' resilience … ______ credited with the project's ultimate success.” The subject is “the engineers' resilience”. The word “engineers'” is possessive (showing ownership), not the head noun. The head noun is “resilience,” which is singular and takes a singular verb.
Match the verb tense to the rest of the sentence
Look at the earlier verbs: “took weeks” and “was celebrated.” Both describe actions completed in the past. To stay consistent, the verb in the blank should also be in a simple past form (not present and not a perfect tense that suggests ongoing relevance).
Choose the verb that fits both number and tense
You now know the verb must be singular (to agree with “resilience”) and in the simple past (to match “took” and “was celebrated”). Among the choices, only “was” is a singular, simple past form that correctly completes “was credited.” So the correct answer is C) was.