Drawing from multiple artistic traditions, sculptor Maya Lin conceived and developed her Vietnam Veterans Memorial design, ______ minimalist and repre...

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

• Drawing from multiple artistic traditions,
  • sculptor Maya Lin
    • conceived and developed her Vietnam Veterans Memorial design,
      • [?] minimalist and representational elements
        • that had rarely been combined in public monuments.
• Where [?] = to merge / merged / merging / and merging

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

'Drawing from multiple artistic traditions'

• This tells us HOW Maya Lin approached her work - she pulled from multiple different art traditions

'sculptor Maya Lin'

• This is who we're talking about

'conceived and developed her Vietnam Veterans Memorial design'

• These are the main actions - she conceived (came up with the idea for) and developed (worked out the details of) her design for the memorial

Now we've reached the blank. The sentence continues:
'______ minimalist and representational elements that had rarely been combined in public monuments.'

Let's look at our choices:

• We're deciding between different forms of the verb related to 'merge'
  • A. to merge (infinitive form)
  • B. merged (past tense)
  • C. merging (present participle/-ing form)
  • D. and merging (coordinated -ing form)

To see what works here, let's understand what this part is telling us:

• 'minimalist and representational elements'
  • These are two different artistic styles being brought together
  • Minimalist = very simple, stripped down
  • Representational = showing recognizable forms/figures
• 'that had rarely been combined in public monuments'
  • This tells us these two styles hadn't really been put together before in monuments

So the complete meaning is:

• Maya Lin conceived and developed her memorial design
• This design brought together two styles (minimalist and representational) that hadn't been combined before

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The sentence already has its main verbs: 'conceived and developed'
  • These tell us the primary actions Maya Lin took
• After the comma, we need something that describes WHAT the design did or HOW it worked
  • This isn't another main action
  • It's additional descriptive information about the design
• The phrase about merging elements tells us what the design accomplished - it brought these two styles together

So we need: merging (Choice C)

• The -ing form creates a descriptive phrase that flows from the main action
• It tells us what the design did without creating a separate main statement
• Structure: main action (conceived and developed) + comma + descriptive phrase (merging elements)

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Descriptive Phrases with -ing Forms

When you want to add extra information about an action or tell what resulted from it, you can use a comma followed by an -ing form (called a present participle in grammar terms). This creates a descriptive phrase rather than a separate complete statement:

Pattern: Main clause + comma + -ing phrase

Example 1:

• The architect designed the building, incorporating sustainable materials throughout.
  • Main action: designed the building
  • Additional description: incorporating materials (tells HOW or WHAT the design did)

Example 2:

• The scientist published her findings, challenging previous theories in the field.
  • Main action: published findings
  • Additional description: challenging theories (tells what resulted or what this did)

In our question:

• Main action: Maya Lin conceived and developed her design
• Additional description: merging minimalist and representational elements
• The 'merging' phrase tells us what the design accomplished - it brought these elements together
• This flows naturally from the main action without creating a separate statement

Key insight: The -ing form allows you to add descriptive layers to your main statement. It's not announcing a new main action but rather elaborating on what you've already stated.