Although many ancient structures have crumbled over centuries, certain monuments demonstrate remarkable durability. Recent archaeological analysis ___...

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

• Although many ancient structures have crumbled over centuries,
• certain monuments
  • demonstrate remarkable durability.
• Recent archaeological analysis
  • [?] how:
• builders in that era
  • used a lime-based mortar
    • that actually strengthens over time
      • through a process called carbonation.

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence sets up the context:

• Although many ancient structures have crumbled over centuries,
  • Most old buildings fell apart over time
• certain monuments demonstrate remarkable durability.
  • But some have lasted incredibly well

Now the second sentence tells us about what research has discovered.

The sentence starts:

• 'Recent archaeological analysis ______ how:'

Here's where we have the blank! Let's look at our choices:

• revealing
• reveals
• having revealed
• to reveal

These are all different forms of the verb "reveal."

What do we need here? Let's think about the structure:

• We have a subject: "Recent archaeological analysis"
  • This is singular - we're talking about one thing (the analysis)
• We need a verb to tell us what this analysis does
• The sentence is making a statement about what the analysis does

Looking at our choices:

• "reveals" is the form that works as a complete verb with a singular subject
• The other forms (revealing, having revealed, to reveal) can't act as the main verb of a sentence by themselves

So we need: reveals

Now let's read the complete sentence with "reveals":

• 'Recent archaeological analysis reveals how: builders in that era used a lime-based mortar that actually strengthens over time through a process called carbonation.'

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The analysis "reveals" something - that's the main action of the sentence
• The colon introduces what gets revealed: the explanation about the mortar
• "Reveals" is doing the work of telling us what the subject (analysis) does

The correct answer is B: reveals

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Finite Verbs: The Essential Component of Complete Sentences

Every complete sentence needs a finite verb - a verb form that's fully conjugated and can work as the main verb. Finite verbs show tense and agree with their subject.

Non-finite verb forms (participles like "revealing" or "having revealed," and infinitives like "to reveal") cannot serve as the main verb of a sentence by themselves.

The pattern:

• Sentence with finite verb: The company announces new products.
  • "announces" = finite verb (present tense, agrees with "company")
  • Complete sentence ✓
• Fragment with non-finite form: The company announcing new products.
  • "announcing" = participle (non-finite)
  • Incomplete sentence ✗
• Fragment with infinitive: The company to announce new products.
  • "to announce" = infinitive (non-finite)
  • Incomplete sentence ✗

In this question:

• Subject: "Recent archaeological analysis" (singular)
• Need: finite verb that agrees with singular subject
• Answer: "reveals" (present tense, third person singular - the only finite verb form offered)

The other choices are non-finite forms that would create sentence fragments.