A verb form question tests whether the blank needs a main verb or a describing form. Sort the forms: main verbs say what a subject does or is, while an -ing form needs a helper to do that. Start near the blank, find its subject, and read to the period, setting aside verbs with other subjects. Commas can enclose extra words only if removing them leaves a complete sentence.
Hints
- Hint 1
Set aside the opening phrase about reading the two novels. Find the person the sentence is about in the words that follow.
- Hint 2
Read all the way to the period and look for the critic's own verb. Ask who or what each verb is about.
- Hint 3
Try removing the long discussion of the novels through “readers.” Do the remaining words have a subject and a main verb?
Step-by-step
Find the critic's main verb
Step 1Sort the forms and find the subject
Sort the forms: argues and has argued can be main verbs, but an -ing form can't be one on its own. Who is the sentence about? The words critic Imani, followed by Brooks, name the subject after the opening reading phrase. We need to see whether that critic still needs a main verb, the verb that says what the subject does or is.
- Step 2
Read past the verbs about the accounts
Read past the blank to characterizes the narrators' evasions. Who characterizes those evasions? Brooks does, so characterizes is the critic's main verb. The earlier each novel's first-person account protects its teller has the account as its subject, while even as it gradually discloses that knowledge to readers also says what the account does. Those verbs say what the account does, so they aren't main verbs for Brooks.
- Step 3
Check for a joining word
Can the blank add another main verb for Brooks? No word such as and joins it to characterizes. Brooks argues that and Brooks has argued that would each give Brooks two unjoined main verbs. The comma in Brooks, argues that doesn't join those verbs either.
- Step 4
Set off the describing detail
Remove the words between Brooks and the later main verb for a moment. What remains is a complete sentence, so the discussion can be extra information. The form arguing describes Brooks without adding a main verb, and the comma after Brooks pairs with the existing comma in readers, characterizes to enclose the detail. That gives Brooks, arguing that. Choice B.