Botanist Elena Petrova, from the Institute of Plant Sciences in Moscow, _____ the adaptive mechanisms of Arctic vegetation—particularly, how species...

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

• Botanist Elena Petrova,
• from the Institute of Plant Sciences in Moscow,
• [?] the adaptive mechanisms of Arctic vegetation—
• particularly,
• how species such as Arctic poppy and purple saxifrage survive extreme temperature fluctuations,
• limited nutrients,
• and intense UV radiation during summer months.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

• 'Botanist Elena Petrova'
  • This is who the sentence is about - a specific scientist.
• 'from the Institute of Plant Sciences in Moscow'
  • This just tells us where she works.
  • It's extra descriptive information set off by commas.

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

• 'Botanist Elena Petrova ______ the adaptive mechanisms of Arctic vegetation'

Let's look at our choices:

• A. examine
• B. examines
• C. have examined
• D. are examining

What do we need here? We need a verb that works with our subject:

• The subject is 'Botanist Elena Petrova' - that's one person, so singular.
• The phrase 'from the Institute of Plant Sciences in Moscow' is just extra information about where she works - it doesn't change the fact that we're talking about one person.
• So we need a singular verb form.

Looking at our choices:

• 'examines' is the singular form
• 'examine,' 'have examined,' and 'are examining' all work with plural subjects (like 'botanists' or 'they')

So we need: examines

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

• 'the adaptive mechanisms of Arctic vegetation—particularly, how species such as Arctic poppy and purple saxifrage survive extreme temperature fluctuations, limited nutrients, and intense UV radiation during summer months.'

This tells us:

• Elena Petrova studies how Arctic plants adapt to harsh conditions
• The dash introduces specific details about what she's examining
• She's looking at how certain species survive extreme cold, limited food sources, and intense sun exposure

The complete meaning: This botanist from Moscow studies the ways Arctic plants have adapted to survive in extremely challenging environmental conditions.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Matching Verbs with Their Subjects When They're Separated

The key rule: A verb must agree in number with its subject - singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs. This remains true even when the subject and verb are separated by other information.

The challenge: Sometimes extra information appears between the subject and its verb, which can distract you from identifying what the verb needs to agree with.

The pattern:

• Subject (singular) + descriptive phrase + singular verb
• Example: The scientist, along with her research team, publishes findings annually.
• Subject: "The scientist" (singular)
• Descriptive phrase: "along with her research team" (doesn't change the subject)
• Verb: "publishes" (singular)

• Subject (plural) + descriptive phrase + plural verb
• Example: The scientists, including the lead researcher, publish findings annually.
• Subject: "The scientists" (plural)
• Descriptive phrase: "including the lead researcher" (doesn't change the subject)
• Verb: "publish" (plural)

In this question:

• Subject: "Botanist Elena Petrova" (singular - one person)
• Descriptive phrase: "from the Institute of Plant Sciences in Moscow" (just tells us where she works, set off by commas)
• Verb needed: "examines" (singular to match the singular subject)

The prepositional phrase "from the Institute of Plant Sciences in Moscow" is extra information that doesn't affect the number of the subject. Elena Petrova is still one person, so she "examines" (not "examine").