American abstract artist Richard ________ his installations to make passersby keenly aware of how one's movements are affected by the...

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

• American abstract artist Richard Serra [?]
• his installations to make passersby
  • keenly aware of how one's
  • movements are affected
  • by the physical features
  • of one's environment,
• assembles large-scale steel plates into sculptures
  • that dominate the outdoor spaces
  • they occupy.

Understanding the Meaning

This passage is describing an American abstract artist named Richard Serra.

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

• A: "is intending" (no comma before)
• B: "intends" (with comma before)
• C: "intending" (with comma before)
• D: "intends" (no comma before)

So we're deciding on the verb form and whether there's a comma after "Serra."

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The sentence continues:

• "his installations to make passersby keenly aware of how one's movements are affected by the physical features of one's environment"
  • This is talking about Serra's purpose or intention - he wants his installations to make people really notice how the physical space around them affects how they move
• "assembles large-scale steel plates into sculptures that dominate the outdoor spaces they occupy"
  • This is the concrete action - what Serra actually does
  • He puts together big steel plates to create sculptures
  • These sculptures take over/dominate the outdoor spaces where they're placed

Now let's understand what this is telling us about the sentence structure:

• "assembles" is doing the work of the main action verb
  • This is what the sentence is fundamentally about: Serra assembles steel plates into sculptures
• The part about "his installations to make passersby keenly aware..."
  • This is giving us background information about Serra's purpose
  • It's describing WHY he does this - his artistic intention
  • This needs to be a descriptive phrase, not the main verb

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We need a verb form that works as a descriptor (providing background about his intention)
  • while "assembles" serves as the main verb
• The -ing form "intending" does exactly this
  • It describes Serra's purpose
  • It's a modifying phrase that needs to be set off by commas
• The structure is: Subject + descriptive phrase about intention + main verb
  • Richard Serra, intending his installations to..., assembles steel plates...

So we need Choice C: Serra, intending

This creates: "Richard Serra, intending his installations to make passersby keenly aware..., assembles large-scale steel plates into sculptures..."

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Participial Phrases to Add Descriptive Information

When you want to provide background or additional information about a subject while still keeping focus on a main action, you can use a participial phrase (an -ing verb form used as a descriptor, called a present participle in grammar terms). When this phrase comes between the subject and main verb, it must be set off by commas:

Pattern:

• Subject, participial phrase providing context, main verb

Example 1:

• Without participial phrase: "The chef prepared an elaborate meal."
• With participial phrase: "The chef, wanting to impress the critics, prepared an elaborate meal."
• "The chef" = subject
• "wanting to impress the critics" = participial phrase (background on motivation)
• "prepared" = main verb (primary action)

Example 2:

• "The students, hoping to finish early, worked efficiently on their projects."
• "hoping to finish early" = participial phrase set off by commas
• "worked" = main verb

In our question:

• "Richard Serra, intending his installations to make passersby keenly aware..., assembles large-scale steel plates..."
• "intending..." = participial phrase (describes his artistic purpose)
• "assembles" = main verb (the primary action)
• Commas properly set off the descriptive phrase from the main sentence structure