Question 144·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Standard English Conventions
The eighty-six-year-old linguist continues to publish articles at an impressive rate, his latest study on endangered dialects ______ that conservation efforts must prioritize community-led initiatives.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For sentence-completion questions testing verb forms and structure, first locate the subject and main verb of the sentence to see whether you already have a complete clause. Then look at the punctuation around the blank: if there is a comma before it and the sentence is already complete, you usually need a phrase (like an -ing form) that adds information, not another full verb phrase that would create a comma splice. Compare answer choices by asking, "Does this turn the section into a new sentence, or does it function as a modifier/extra detail?" and quickly eliminate any option that makes the structure ungrammatical.
Hints
Check what is already complete
Look at the part of the sentence before the comma. Do you already have a subject and a main verb there?
Think about what comes after the comma
Is the section after the comma supposed to be a whole new sentence, or is it giving extra information about the linguist and his work?
Match the structure to the role
Which option turns the words after "his latest study on endangered dialects" into a phrase that describes that study, instead of starting a new full sentence?
Watch out for comma splices
If you choose a form that makes "his latest study ... ___ that ..." into its own full sentence, would that create two complete sentences joined only by a comma?
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the main clause before the comma
Read up to the comma: "The eighty-six-year-old linguist continues to publish articles at an impressive rate,".
This part already has:
- Subject: "The eighty-six-year-old linguist"
- Main verb: "continues"
- Verb complement: "to publish articles at an impressive rate"
So the sentence already contains a complete main clause and does not need another main verb for this subject.
Decide what the part after the comma should do
Now look at what comes after the comma: "his latest study on endangered dialects ______ that conservation efforts must prioritize community-led initiatives."
This is extra information added onto a complete sentence. After a comma like this, we typically need a descriptive phrase that attaches smoothly to the main clause, not another full independent clause introduced only by a comma.
So the word in the blank should not start a new independent clause (subject + finite verb) that would create a run-on sentence.
Classify the verb forms in the answer choices
Check what kind of verb each choice would create:
- "argues" → present tense verb form (would make a new full clause: "his latest study argues...")
- "has argued" → present perfect verb phrase (also a full clause: "his latest study has argued...")
- "will argue" → future tense verb phrase (another full clause: "his latest study will argue...")
- "arguing" → -ing form that can start a phrase describing "his latest study" rather than a new main clause.
Only one option turns the words after the comma into a modifying/descriptive phrase instead of a separate sentence.
Choose the form that creates a phrase, not a run-on
If we use any of the full-verb options ("argues," "has argued," or "will argue"), we get a complete sentence stuck to another complete sentence with just a comma, which is a comma splice and not acceptable in Standard English.
Using the -ing form makes the second part a descriptive phrase: "..., his latest study on endangered dialects arguing that conservation efforts must prioritize community-led initiatives." This functions as extra information about his latest study and correctly follows the comma.
Therefore, the best choice is "arguing."