A verb form question with paired actions tests how two verbs work with the same subject. Find the subject and set aside extra descriptions. Then sort the forms and count main verbs: a main verb says what the subject does, while an -ing form needs a helper to do that. Check what joins the actions, because joining words allow more than one main verb. Linked actions share a tense unless the text signals a change in time.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the description between the dashes. Which person or thing does its verb belong to?
- Hint 2
Read the words that connect the blank to the earlier action. Does the blank add a description or a second action, and what tense does the earlier action use?
Step-by-step
Find the pair, then match its tense
Step 1Set aside the organization’s description
Naturalist Wangari Maathai is the subject, meaning the person the sentence is about. She already has a main verb, the verb that tells what she did, in not only founded, so we need to work out the blank’s job. Does an organization that promotes tree-planting and women’s empowerment give us another verb for Maathai? No, it describes the Green Belt Movement, so its verb belongs to the organization and can be set aside.
- Step 2
Recognize the paired actions
Does the blank only describe Maathai because she already has a main verb? No, not only and but also link two things Maathai did. These joining words make the blank a second main verb. That means we’re looking for a main verb, not a form that only describes her. Raising is an -ing form without a helper such as was, so it can't fill that job.
- Step 3
Match the first action’s tense
Which tense belongs in the second half of the pair? not only founded puts the first action in the simple past, the plain past form, and the sentence gives no reason to move the second action to another time. Raise is present and also doesn't agree with the singular subject, while has raised links the past to the present without a clue for that shift. The paired actions call for the simple past, so raised completes the sentence. Choice C.