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Difficulty: MediumVerb Tense, Aspect, and Mood

Throughout her career in the early twentieth century, botanist Ynes Mexia collected nearly 150,000 plant specimens across the Americas, discovering over 500 new species. While exploring the remote regions of the Amazon rainforest in 1931, Mexia ______ a fall that resulted in a fractured hand; nevertheless, she continued her expedition and gathered hundreds of rare samples before returning to San Francisco. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

  1. A
    suffers
  2. sufferedAnswer
  3. C
    has suffered
  4. D
    is suffering

Answer

suffered
The sentence describes an event that took place at a specific point in the past ('in 1931'). Therefore, the simple past tense verb 'suffered' is required to maintain grammatical and temporal consistency with the rest of the historical narrative, which also uses past tense verbs like 'collected', 'continued', and 'gathered'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the sentence context to identify key time markers.
The phrase 'in 1931' establishes a specific, completed time frame in the past.
Time markers indicate the appropriate tense and aspect required for the verb.
2
Compare the verb form options to find the one that matches a completed past time frame.
The simple past tense verb 'suffered' matches the past context.
Other options use present, present perfect, or present continuous forms, which create inappropriate shifts in verb tense.

Key Concept

Verb Tense, Aspect, and Mood

Alternative Method

Look at the other verbs in the passage. The verbs 'collected', 'continued', and 'gathered' are all in the simple past tense. To maintain consistency within the narrative framework, the blank must also be filled with a simple past tense verb.
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Verb Tense, Aspect, and Mood

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