An apostrophe question tests whether a noun owns something and how many owners there are. Read across the blank and test ownership with of: put the thing first, then of and the possible owner. If that says what the sentence means, use an apostrophe; if the noun owns nothing, don't. Then count the owners: one takes ’s, while several ending in s take an apostrophe after it. The number of things owned doesn't decide where the apostrophe goes.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the words after the blank. Ask whose ability to huddle the sentence describes.
- Hint 2
Use the words that first introduce the colony and the later pronoun to check how many colonies the sentence names.
Step-by-step
Ownership, then number
Step 1Test for ownership
Read across the blank into to huddle tightly together. Each choice ends with ability, so what link does the sentence make between the colony and that ability? Try the of test by putting the thing first: the ability of the colony keeps the meaning because the penguins conserve warmth by huddling as a group. The colony owns the ability, so the noun for the colony needs an apostrophe to show that ownership.
- Step 2
Count the colonies
How many owners does the passage name? It says an emperor penguin colony, so we're talking about one colony rather than several. The later words its members point back to that same single group. A colony contains many penguins, but we're counting colonies because that's the noun that owns the ability. One colony is the owner, even though it has more than one member.
- Step 3
Use the form for one owner
For one owner, add ’s to the noun, with the apostrophe before the s. The forms the colony ability and the colonies ability don't show ownership, while the colonies’ ability shows several colonies owning the ability. Which choice shows the ability belonging to one colony? The form the colony’s ability does that because it adds ’s to colony, the noun for one group. Choice D.