To trace the exchange of medicinal plants across medieval Indian Ocean ports, historian Samira Qureshi combined merchants’ inventories, harbor tax rolls, and physicians’ notebooks in a single database, with the dates—which had been recorded according to several now-obsolete local calendars—______ to a common dating system before patterns among ports were compared.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For sentences with long interruptions, temporarily remove parenthetical material and identify the underlying structure. If the main clause is already complete and a phrase beginning with “with” adds an accompanying circumstance, look for a nonfinite verb form that can describe the noun within that phrase rather than a finite verb that would incorrectly create a new clause.
Hints
Find the main clause
Determine whether the sentence already has a subject and a verb before the phrase beginning with “with.”
Set aside the interruption
Temporarily remove the information between the dashes and examine the structure “with the dates ______ to a common dating system.”
Check the verb type
Decide whether the blank requires a finite verb that begins a clause or a nonfinite form that describes “the dates” within a larger phrase.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the complete main clause
The sentence’s main clause is “historian Samira Qureshi combined merchants’ inventories, harbor tax rolls, and physicians’ notebooks in a single database.” It already contains a subject and a finite verb.
Analyze the phrase beginning with “with”
The preposition “with” introduces a supplementary phrase whose central noun is “dates.” The words between the dashes provide additional information about those dates but do not change the sentence’s structure.
Choose the required verb form
Because this supplementary phrase cannot contain an independent finite clause directly after “with,” it needs a participial construction: “with the dates … being converted.”