Hoping to better understand the migration patterns of monarch butterflies across North America, _____ that would track the insects' movements...

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

First sentence:

• Hoping to better understand the migration patterns of monarch butterflies across North America,
  • [?]
    • that would track the insects' movements using lightweight GPS tags.

Second sentence:

• The data collected
  • revealed
    • previously unknown stopover sites critical to conservation efforts.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

'Hoping to better understand the migration patterns of monarch butterflies across North America...'

This opening phrase tells us about someone's goal or motivation:

• Someone wants to better understand how monarch butterflies migrate across North America.

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices to see what we're deciding:

• A: lightweight GPS tags would be used...
• B: the Monarch Research Institute launched...
• C: a project launched by... would develop...
• D: the development of lightweight GPS tags was undertaken...

So we're deciding what comes right after that opening "Hoping" phrase - what's the subject of the main part of the sentence?

To see what works here, let's think about what that opening phrase is doing. It's describing someone's hope or goal. Now here's the key question: Who can hope? Who can have the goal of wanting to better understand migration patterns?

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The opening phrase 'Hoping to better understand...' is describing the subject that comes right after the comma.
  • It needs to be something that can actually hope - something that can have goals and intentions.

• Let's think about each option:
  • Can GPS tags hope? No - they're objects.
  • Can the Monarch Research Institute hope? Yes - it's an organization made up of people.
  • Can a project hope? No - a project is an abstract thing.
  • Can "the development" hope? No - that's also an abstract concept.

So we need the Monarch Research Institute to be the subject because it's the only choice that represents an entity (an organization of people) that can logically "hope" to understand something.

The correct answer is B: 'the Monarch Research Institute launched a project to develop...'

Now let's read the complete first sentence:

• 'Hoping to better understand the migration patterns of monarch butterflies across North America, the Monarch Research Institute launched a project to develop [something] that would track the insects' movements using lightweight GPS tags.'

The second sentence then tells us:

• 'The data collected revealed previously unknown stopover sites critical to conservation efforts.'
  • So this GPS tracking project worked - it collected data that showed important stopover locations that conservationists didn't know about before.

The complete picture: The Institute, hoping to understand butterfly migration better, launched a project using GPS tags to track them, and the data revealed important conservation information.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Introductory Describing Phrases: What They Modify Must Come Right After

When a sentence starts with an introductory phrase that describes an action, feeling, or characteristic (in grammar terms, often called a participial phrase or other modifier), that phrase must logically describe whatever subject comes immediately after the comma.

The pattern works like this:

[Introductory describing phrase], [the thing being described] [continues the sentence].

Example 1:

• Incorrect: Running through the park, the flowers looked beautiful to Maya.
  • This wrongly suggests the flowers were running
• Correct: Running through the park, Maya noticed the beautiful flowers.
  • Maya is running (she can run)

Example 2:

• Incorrect: Hoping to improve sales, a new marketing campaign was launched by the company.
  • This suggests the campaign itself was hoping
• Correct: Hoping to improve sales, the company launched a new marketing campaign.
  • The company can hope (it's made of people who have goals)

In our question:

• The opening phrase: "Hoping to better understand the migration patterns..."
• What can logically hope? An organization of researchers (the Monarch Research Institute)
• What cannot hope? Objects (GPS tags), abstract concepts (a project, the development)

This is why only Choice B works - it places the Monarch Research Institute (an entity that can have hopes and goals) right after the comma, making the sentence logical and grammatically correct.