A pronoun question tests whether a pronoun matches the noun it stands for in number and meaning. Expand any contraction into full words, then check what job the blank needs to do. Possessive pronouns show ownership without an apostrophe; the contractions mean it is, it has, or they are. To check number, find the noun the pronoun stands for: a singular pronoun refers to one thing, and a plural pronoun refers to more than one.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the words immediately after the blank. What does the missing word tell us about the movements?
- Hint 2
Expand each contraction into full words and read the sentence with those full words.
- Hint 3
Find the noun that names what's on display, then ask whether it names one group or several groups.
Step-by-step
Expand, find the owner, and match
Step 1Check what the blank does
Sort the forms by number and expand the contractions. What does the blank do before synchronized movements demonstrate? The movements do the demonstrating, so the blank must tell us whose they are. It's means it is or it has, and they're means they are, which add subjects and verbs where an owner is needed. The blank calls for ownership.
- Step 2
Find whose movements they are
Whose movements are these? Read back across the semicolon to a robotic swarm, the thing on display. The opening puts the location first: in the usual order, it says that a robotic swarm is on display at the museum. The synchronized movements belong to the swarm, not the museum. The pronoun stands for the swarm.
- Step 3
Count the group, not the members
Does the number of robots inside the swarm change the pronoun? It doesn't, because a robotic swarm names one group, even if the group contains many robots. A noun naming one group takes a singular pronoun, which is a pronoun for one thing. The word movements is plural, but it tells us what the swarm has, not how many swarms there are. The owner is singular.
- Step 4
Match the ownership form
Their means belonging to them, so it needs an owner that's more than one thing. Its means belonging to it, so it gives the singular ownership form for a robotic swarm. Choice A.