During the 1970s, architect Julia Morgan ______ to revolutionize sustainable building design, ultimately earning international recognition for her inn...

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

• During the 1970s,
• architect Julia Morgan [?]
• to revolutionize sustainable building design,
• ultimately earning international recognition
• for her innovative use of recycled materials and passive solar heating.

Understanding the Meaning

The sentence starts by setting a time frame:

• During the 1970s
  • This tells us when the events happened - in the past.

Then we have the subject:

• architect Julia Morgan
  • This is who the sentence is about.

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

• architect Julia Morgan ______ to revolutionize sustainable building design

Let's look at our choices:

• A. seeking
• B. to seek
• C. sought
• D. had been seeking

What do we notice so far?

• Julia Morgan is the subject
• We're in a past time frame ('During the 1970s')
• We need a verb that tells us what Julia Morgan did
• That verb needs to work with 'to revolutionize' that comes after it

Let's read the rest to see the complete picture:

• ultimately earning international recognition for her innovative use of recycled materials and passive solar heating.
  • This tells us the result of her work - she became internationally recognized for her innovations.

So the complete meaning is:

• During the 1970s, Julia Morgan [verb] to revolutionize sustainable building design, and as a result, she earned international recognition.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• This sentence needs a main verb - the primary action that tells us what Julia Morgan did.
• 'To revolutionize' is an infinitive that would complete the meaning of that main verb.
• 'Earning' is describing an additional result, but it's not the main action.
• Since we're talking about the 1970s (past time), we need a past tense verb.

So we need: sought (Choice C)

• 'Sought' is the past tense form of 'seek'
• It serves as the main verb of the sentence
• It works perfectly with 'to revolutionize' - "sought to revolutionize" means "tried to revolutionize" or "worked to revolutionize"
• It matches the past time frame

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Choosing the Correct Verb Form to Serve as the Main Verb

Every complete sentence needs a main verb (called a finite verb in grammar terms) - a verb form that can anchor the sentence and express the primary action. Here's how to identify what form you need:

Pattern 1: Recognizing the Main Verb Position

• Subject + [Main Verb] + rest of sentence
• Example: "Julia Morgan sought to revolutionize building design"
• "sought" = past tense main verb
• "to revolutionize" = infinitive phrase completing the meaning of "sought"

Pattern 2: Why Other Verb Forms Don't Work as Main Verbs

• Infinitives (to + verb): "to seek to revolutionize" - needs a finite verb
• Participles alone (-ing forms): "Julia Morgan seeking..." - creates a fragment
• These forms need to work WITH a main verb, not replace it

Pattern 3: Matching Tense to Time Context

• When you have a past time marker ("During the 1970s"), use simple past tense for the main action
• Past perfect ("had been seeking") is only needed when you're showing one past action occurred before another past action
• In our sentence: "During the 1970s" + simple completed action = simple past tense

Application to This Question:

• Time context: "During the 1970s" (past)
• Subject: "architect Julia Morgan" (singular)
• Need: A finite past tense verb that works with "to revolutionize"
• Answer: "sought" - simple past tense, serves as the main verb