Anthropologists analyzing cultural diffusion patterns have documented extensive interaction between ancient civilizations. Archaeological evidence fro...

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

• Anthropologists analyzing cultural diffusion patterns
• have documented extensive interaction
• between ancient civilizations.
• Archaeological evidence from multiple sites
• confirms that (?) traders
• established regular exchange routes,
• facilitating the spread of both goods and ideas
• across the Mediterranean region.

Understanding the Meaning

• The passage starts by giving us context:
  • 'Anthropologists analyzing cultural diffusion patterns have documented extensive interaction between ancient civilizations.'
    • This tells us that scientists have found evidence that ancient civilizations interacted with each other extensively.
• Then we get specific evidence:
  • 'Archaeological evidence from multiple sites confirms that...'
    • Now we're getting concrete archaeological proof
• Here's where we need to fill in the blank:
  • '______ traders established regular exchange routes'
• Let's look at our choices:
  • A. Phoenician and Greek
  • B. Phoenician's and Greek's
  • C. Phoenicians and Greeks
  • D. Phoenician and Greek's
• What do we need here? The blank comes right before "traders," so we need words that describe what KIND of traders these were.
• In English, when we use one noun to describe another noun, we use the base form as an adjective - just like:
  • "coffee table" (not "coffee's table" or "coffees table")
  • "history teacher" (not "history's teacher" or "histories teacher")
  • "mountain range" (not "mountain's range" or "mountains range")
• We're describing the TYPE of traders - traders who were Phoenician and traders who were Greek. These words are functioning as adjectives here.
• So we need: Phoenician and Greek (Choice A)
• The sentence continues:
  • 'established regular exchange routes, facilitating the spread of both goods and ideas across the Mediterranean region.'
    • This tells us WHAT these traders did - they created regular trade routes that helped spread both physical goods and ideas throughout the Mediterranean area.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Nouns as Adjectives (Attributive Nouns)

When we want to use one noun to describe or specify another noun, we use the base/singular form without possessives. The first noun functions as an adjective (called an attributive noun in grammar terms):

Pattern: [singular noun as adjective] + [main noun]

Examples:

• coffee table (a table for coffee, not "coffee's table" or "coffees table")
• history teacher (a teacher of history, not "history's teacher" or "histories teacher")
• mountain range (a range of mountains, not "mountain's range" or "mountains range")
• car door (a door on a car, not "car's door" or "cars door")

In this question:

• Phoenician and Greek traders
• "Phoenician" and "Greek" are describing what type of traders
• They function as adjectives, so we use the base form
• We're identifying traders BY their civilization/nationality, not showing possession

Why not possessive?

• Possessive ('s) indicates ownership or belonging
• Here we're not talking about "traders that belong to the Phoenicians"
• We're describing traders who ARE Phoenician - it's their identity, not ownership

Why not plural?

• When nouns act as adjectives, they stay singular
• Even if there are multiple of the items, the descriptor stays singular
• We always say "car doors" (plural main noun), never "cars doors"