For sentences with long modifiers, locate the core subject and its main verb before evaluating the blank. If a later verb already completes the sentence, the blank may require a participle rather than another finite verb. Remove intervening phrases temporarily to make the underlying structure easier to see.
Hints
- Hint 1
Find the sentence's core
Temporarily remove the descriptive material and identify what the collection does for historians.
- Hint 2
Count the main verbs
Decide whether the sentence already has a finite verb that agrees with the singular subject “a collection.”
- Hint 3
Examine the blank's role
The words beginning at the blank should describe the collection rather than create a second main predicate.
Step-by-step
- Step 1
Identify the subject and main verb
The subject is the singular noun phrase “a collection of costume sketches.” Later, “provides” functions as its main verb: the collection “provides historians” with evidence.
- Step 2
Determine the blank's function
Because “provides” is already the main verb, the blank should not introduce another finite verb. Instead, it should begin a modifying phrase that describes what the collection does.
- Step 3
Choose the participle
“Revealing” is a participle, so “revealing how nineteenth-century touring companies altered fashionable garments” correctly modifies “a collection of costume sketches” without competing with the main verb “provides.”