To ensure proper grammatical structure and tense consistency throughout the passage, which verb forms of 'perform' and 'deviate' should be used to fill in the blanks?
Answer:Typically, when a honeybee locates a rich source of nectar, it returns to the hive and 【performs】 a waggle dance to communicate the route to its peers. However, during a controlled study conducted last summer, scientists observed a rare anomaly: a bee 【deviated】 from this standard pattern and instead relied on visual landmarks to guide its flight.
Answer
The first blank should be filled with 'performs' and the second blank should be filled with 'deviated'.
The first sentence describes a general biological fact about honeybees, established by the present-tense verbs 'locates' and 'returns.' Therefore, the first blank requires the present-tense singular verb 'performs' to agree with the subject 'it' and maintain tense consistency. The second sentence shifts to a specific past experiment, as indicated by 'last summer' and 'observed.' Thus, the second blank requires the simple past-tense verb 'deviated' to maintain consistency with the past-tense context and the coordinate past-tense verb 'relied.'
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Maintaining verb tense consistency between general descriptions (present tense) and specific past occurrences (past tense).