Featuring jagged peaks of black ink surrounded by hazy swirls of blue and green paint, Zhang Daqian's 1983 painting Panorama...

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

• Featuring jagged peaks of black ink surrounded by hazy swirls of blue and green paint,
• Zhang Daqian's 1983 painting Panorama of Mount Lu
• is inspired by the tradition of qinglü shanshui,
  • a type of Chinese landscape painting [?] by the use of blue and green hues
    • to depict ethereal, otherworldly landscapes.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

'Featuring jagged peaks of black ink surrounded by hazy swirls of blue and green paint'

• This opening phrase describes what we see in the painting
  • Sharp black peaks
  • Misty blue and green colors around them

'Zhang Daqian's 1983 painting Panorama of Mount Lu is inspired by the tradition of qinglü shanshui'

• The painting (our main subject) is inspired by a tradition
  • qinglü shanshui is a specific tradition of Chinese art

Now the sentence tells us more about what qinglü shanshui is:

• 'a type of Chinese landscape painting'
  • This phrase renames and describes qinglü shanshui

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

• They're all different forms of "characterized"
  • has been characterized (present perfect)
  • will be characterized (future)
  • characterized (simple past participle)
  • is characterized (present tense)

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

'[characterized] by the use of blue and green hues to depict ethereal, otherworldly landscapes'

• This describes what defines this type of painting
  • It uses blue and green colors specifically
  • These colors create an otherworldly, dreamlike feeling

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The sentence already has its main verb: 'is inspired'
  • That's the primary action - the painting is inspired by this tradition

• The phrase 'a type of Chinese landscape painting' is a noun phrase
  • It's describing what qinglü shanshui is
  • What comes after needs to ADD MORE DESCRIPTION to this noun

• We need a verb form that describes the noun, not another main verb
  • Think of phrases like 'a book written by...' or 'a painting created by...'
  • We use the simple past participle form to modify the noun
  • Not a complete verb phrase with auxiliary verbs like 'has been' or 'is'

So we need characterized - the simple past participle that works as a descriptive modifier.

The correct answer is C. characterized.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Past Participles as Descriptive Modifiers

When you want to add descriptive information about a noun, you can use a past participle (the -ed form of a verb, or irregular forms like "written," "made," "built") without auxiliary verbs. This creates a phrase that acts like an adjective describing the noun (called a participial phrase in grammar terms).

The pattern:

• Noun + past participle + prepositional phrase
• "a type of painting characterized by blue and green hues"
• "a theory supported by substantial evidence"
• "a building designed by a famous architect"

Compare this to using a complete verb phrase:

• "a type of painting is characterized by..."
  • This would need to be a separate clause with proper punctuation
• "a type of painting characterized by..."
  • The past participle modifies the noun directly

In our question:

• We have: "a type of Chinese landscape painting"
• We're adding description: "characterized by the use of blue and green hues"
• The past participle "characterized" describes what kind of painting it is
• It's not the main action of the sentence (that's "is inspired") - it's descriptive information about the noun "painting"