A question about punctuation and verbs tests how extra information is set off and which noun the verb matches. Find where an insert starts and ends, then cross out the extra information so you can read the main sentence. An insert inside a sentence must open and close with the same mark. Match the verb to its true subject: one thing takes a singular verb, and more than one takes a plural verb. Nouns inside the insert don't decide that match.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look back from the blank for the start of the workshop description. Then follow that description to where it ends.
- Hint 2
Try crossing out the words about the workshops. What words are left to serve as the subject of the sentence's main verb?
- Hint 3
Check the punctuation and verb separately. What mark starts the crossed-out words, and is the subject of the remaining sentence one thing or more than one?
Step-by-step
Cross out the insert and find the subject
Step 1Find where the insert starts
The comma in symbols, each of which may open an insert, a piece of extra information, about the symbols. The choices change both punctuation and the verb form, so we need to check both. What belongs inside the insert? The words after that comma describe which workshop each symbol points to.
- Step 2
Find where the main sentence resumes
Where does the sentence pick up again? The verb in each of which corresponds to a workshop belongs to each, and named describes the workshop, so the symbols still need their own main verb. The description ends with the tax records, before the next verb in the choices. Cross out that whole comment, and the symbols can connect straight to the verb and the evidence they provide.
- Step 3
Match the verb to the symbols
With the comment gone, what supplies the evidence? The subject is The jars' three stamped symbols, so the main verb must be plural. The word each controls only the verb inside the insert, so it can't make the main subject singular. The versions records, constitutes and records constitutes use singular constitutes, which fits it rather than they.
- Step 4
Finish the comma pair
What closes the insert before the main verb? An insert inside a sentence must open and close with the same mark, so the comma in symbols, each of which needs a matching closing comma after records. The version records constitute leaves the insert open, so records, constitute finishes the comma pair. Choice A.