Archaeologists excavating a harbor on the Red Sea coast recovered ceramic storage jars whose clay matched deposits found hundreds of kilometers inland. The jars' three stamped symbols, each of which corresponds to a workshop named in surviving tax _____ evidence that merchants moved locally made containers through an extensive overland network.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For sentences with long interrupting clauses, temporarily remove the interruption to expose the main subject and verb. Check their agreement first, and then restore the interruption and verify that any opening comma is matched by a closing comma.
Hints
Find the main sentence
Temporarily remove the words from “each of which” through “records.” Then identify the main subject and the verb that must agree with it.
Check both grammar decisions
Determine whether the clause beginning after the first comma needs closing punctuation, and then check whether the nearby singular nouns affect the number of the main subject.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the interruption
The clause “each of which corresponds to a workshop named in surviving tax records” provides supplementary information about the symbols. Because this clause begins after a comma, another comma must mark its end.
Check subject-verb agreement
After removing the supplementary clause, the sentence reads “The jars' three stamped symbols constitute evidence.” The subject “symbols” is plural, so the main verb must be “constitute,” not “constitutes.”