In the list 'Adorable Things' from Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book, the author delights in baby sparrows, a face drawn on...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• In the list 'Adorable Things' from Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book,
  • the author delights in baby sparrows,
    • a face drawn on a melon,
    • and a young courtier in ceremonial garb.

• So shrewd an observer is Shōnagon,
  • a lady-in-waiting to Empress Teishi,
• that her book's musings on tenth-century Japanese courtly life
  • [verb - ?] readers a thousand years later.

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence gives us context:

• In Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book, there's a list called 'Adorable Things'
• The author delights in charming details like baby sparrows, a face drawn on a melon, and a young courtier in fancy clothes

Now the second sentence makes a point about Shōnagon's abilities as an observer:

• "So shrewd an observer is Shōnagon"
  • This is an inverted way of saying "Shōnagon is so shrewd an observer"
  • "shrewd" means perceptive and insightful
• We get additional context: "a lady-in-waiting to Empress Teishi"
  • This tells us Shōnagon's position at the imperial court
• Then: "that her book's musings on tenth-century Japanese courtly life..."
  • "Musings" means thoughtful observations or reflections
  • These are observations about life in the tenth-century Japanese court

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:

• fascinate vs. has fascinated vs. fascinates vs. is fascinating
• We're deciding on the verb form - singular vs. plural, and which tense

To see what works here, let's identify the subject of this verb:

• "her book's musings on tenth-century Japanese courtly life ______ readers"
• What's the actual subject doing the action?
• "her book's musings" - the possessive "her book's" is modifying "musings"
• The head noun is "musings" - and that's PLURAL

What do we notice?

• The subject "musings" is plural
• We need a verb that agrees with a plural subject
• Looking at our choices:
  • fascinate - plural form ✓
  • has fascinated - singular (has)
  • fascinates - singular
  • is fascinating - singular (is)

So we need fascinate - the only plural verb form that agrees with "musings."

The complete meaning is:

• Shōnagon is such a shrewd observer that her thoughtful reflections about tenth-century court life still captivate readers a thousand years later
• This is making a timeless statement about the book's enduring appeal

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Matching Verbs to Their Subjects in Number

The verb in a sentence must agree in number with its subject - if the subject is plural, use a plural verb; if the subject is singular, use a singular verb (this is called subject-verb agreement in grammar terms).

The key is identifying the true subject:

Example 1 - Simple subject:

• The books sit on the shelf (plural subject → plural verb)
• The book sits on the shelf (singular subject → singular verb)

Example 2 - Subject with possessive modifier:

• The student's essays impress the teacher (subject is "essays" - plural)
• The student's essay impresses the teacher (subject is "essay" - singular)

In our question:

• "her book's musings... fascinate readers"
• Subject = "musings" (plural)
• "Her book's" is just a possessive modifier, not the subject
• Therefore: need plural verb "fascinate"

Common trap: Don't be distracted by possessives or modifiers between the subject and verb - identify the head noun of the subject phrase to determine whether you need singular or plural.