The documentary filmmaker Ava Martinez spent three years interviewing survivors of the 1985 Mexico City ______ compiled their testimonies into...

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

• The documentary filmmaker Ava Martinez
• spent three years
  • interviewing survivors of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake [?]
• compiled their testimonies
  • into a powerful chronicle of resilience and community strength.

Where [?] represents:

• Choice A: , and
• Choice B: ,
• Choice C: (nothing)
• Choice D: and

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start by reading and understanding what this sentence is telling us:

"The documentary filmmaker Ava Martinez spent three years interviewing survivors of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake"

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

• They're asking what punctuation (if any) should come after "earthquake"
• The options range from just a comma, to "and", to comma + "and", to nothing

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

"compiled their testimonies into a powerful chronicle of resilience and community strength."

Now let's understand what the complete sentence is telling us:

• Ava Martinez (the subject of our sentence) did TWO things:
  • First, she "spent three years interviewing survivors"
  • Second, she "compiled their testimonies into a powerful chronicle"

These are two separate actions by the same person - both main actions that Ava Martinez performed.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We have one subject (Ava Martinez) performing two actions
  • "spent three years interviewing..."
  • "compiled their testimonies..."
• These two verb phrases need to be connected
  • They're coordinate actions - equally important things she did
  • They're both main verbs describing what Ava Martinez accomplished
• When you have one subject doing two things like this, you connect the verbs with "and"
  • You don't need a comma before the "and"
  • This is a clean, direct connection between the two actions

So we need: earthquake and

The correct answer is Choice D.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Connecting Multiple Actions by the Same Subject

When one subject performs two or more actions, you connect the verbs with a coordinating conjunction like "and" - typically without a comma. This creates what's called a compound predicate in grammar terms.

Pattern:

• Subject + Verb₁ + details AND Verb₂ + details

Examples:

1. Compound predicate (no comma):
   • Maria studied the data and presented her findings to the board.
   • Subject: Maria
   • Action 1: studied the data
   • Action 2: presented her findings
   • Connection: and (no comma)
2. In our question:
   • Ava Martinez spent three years interviewing survivors and compiled their testimonies.
   • Subject: Ava Martinez
   • Action 1: spent three years interviewing survivors
   • Action 2: compiled their testimonies
   • Connection: and (no comma)

Key distinction: This is different from connecting two complete sentences (independent clauses), where you would use a comma before "and":

• Two complete sentences: "Maria studied the data, and she presented her findings to the board."
  • Each part could stand alone as a complete sentence
  • Comma + "and" needed
• Compound predicate: "Maria studied the data and presented her findings to the board."
  • Same subject performing two actions
  • Just "and" (no comma) is standard