A verb agreement question with two missing verbs tests whether you can match each verb to its own subject. Sort both verbs in each choice by number, then ask who or what each verb is about. One thing takes a singular verb; more than one takes a plural verb. Set aside phrases and extra information to find each subject. Check both matches, because a choice can get one verb right and still fail.
Hints
- Hint 1
Each choice fills two verb positions. Read across believed and scanned to find both positions.
- Hint 2
In the words beginning with that, look for which noun those words describe. Which printed verb already goes with conservators?
- Hint 3
For the verb before scanned, set aside the phrases beginning with of and including. What subject remains?
Step-by-step
Find both true subjects
Step 1Separate the two verb positions
Sort the two verbs in each choice by number: singular for one thing and plural for more than one. Reading across conservators initially believed _____ scanned shows two jobs: one verb completes what the conservators believed, while the other tells what happened to the sections. Each verb needs its own true subject, so let's find them separately.
- Step 2
Find the subject inside the description
Which noun is the first missing verb about? including several fragments that conservators initially believed begins a description of the fragments. Set aside conservators initially believed for a moment so we can read that description directly. The conservators have their own verb telling us they believed something, but the verb we're adding tells which work the fragments belonged to. The first new verb matches the fragments, which are more than one.
- Step 3
Find the scanning subject
What is being scanned? Cross out the added information beginning including several fragments that conservators initially believed, which describes some sections. Then set aside of the relief's more than eighty glazed terracotta sections. That leaves Each as the true subject of the scanning verb. It means each one taken alone, no matter how many sections the phrase mentions.
- Step 4
Match both verbs
Which forms pass the they and it check? For the fragments, we say they were parts of another work; for each section, we say it was scanned. The pair were followed by was passes both checks. Choice C.