Bengali author Toru Dutt's A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876), a volume of English translations of French poems, ________...

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

• Bengali author Toru Dutt's A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876),
• a volume of English translations of French poems,
• (?) scholars' understanding
• of the transnational and multilingual contexts
• in which Dutt lived and worked.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

'Bengali author Toru Dutt's A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876)'

• This introduces us to a specific work - a book with this title
• The (1876) tells us when it was published
• It was created by Bengali author Toru Dutt

Then we get more information about this book:

• 'a volume of English translations of French poems'
• So this book is a collection of French poems that Dutt translated into English

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank:

• This book '______ scholars' understanding...'

Let's look at our choices:

• A. has enhanced
• B. are enhancing
• C. have enhanced
• D. enhance

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The subject of this sentence is 'A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields' - a single book
• 'Bengali author Toru Dutt's' tells us who wrote it
• 'a volume of English translations' is extra description of the book
• But the main subject is one book - singular
• We need a verb that matches this singular subject
• 'Has' is singular (goes with one thing)
• 'Are' and 'have' are plural (go with multiple things)
• 'Enhance' without a helping verb doesn't work with this structure

So we need A. has enhanced - singular verb matching the singular subject.

Now let's read the rest to see the complete picture:

• The book 'has enhanced scholars' understanding of the transnational and multilingual contexts in which Dutt lived and worked'
• This means the book has helped scholars better understand the complex, multi-language environment that Dutt lived and worked in

The present perfect tense 'has enhanced' makes sense here because:

• The book was published in 1876 (past)
• But its impact on scholars' understanding continues to the present day

Grammar Concept Applied

Matching Verbs to Singular Subjects

When you have a singular subject, you need a singular verb - even when there's a lot of descriptive information between the subject and the verb. Here's the pattern:

Identifying the true subject:

• Look for the main noun that's doing the action
• Don't be distracted by:
  • Possessive phrases (Toru Dutt's)
  • Descriptive phrases set off by commas (a volume of English translations of French poems)
  • Prepositional phrases that come after the subject

In this question:

• Subject: "A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields" (one book) = singular
• Descriptive additions: "Bengali author Toru Dutt's" (possessive) and "a volume of English translations of French poems" (description)
• Verb needed: singular form
• Correct: "has enhanced" (singular - matches "A Sheaf")
• Incorrect: "are enhancing" or "have enhanced" (plural - would need multiple books as subject)

Another example:

• Correct: "The collection of poems was published in 1876"
  • Subject = "collection" (singular)
  • "of poems" is just a prepositional phrase
• Incorrect: "The collection of poems were published in 1876"
  • Wrong: verb doesn't match the singular subject

Present Perfect Tense Note:
The form "has/have + past participle" (called present perfect tense) is used when something happened in the past but continues to be relevant or have effects in the present - perfect for describing how a historical book continues to influence scholars today.