How are Shakespeare's sonnets organized thematically? In the complete collection of 154 works, scholars have identified distinct groupings based on...

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

How are Shakespeare's sonnets organized thematically?

In the complete collection of 154 works,

• scholars have identified distinct groupings
  • based on subject matter and addressee;

specifically,

• the poems
  • numbered 1 through 126
• [?] dedicated to a young man,
• while sonnets 127 through 154 focus on a mysterious "Dark Lady."

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence sets up the topic:

• 'How are Shakespeare's sonnets organized thematically?'
  • This is asking about how the sonnets are grouped by their subjects.

Now the second sentence gives us the answer:

• 'In the complete collection of 154 works, scholars have identified distinct groupings based on subject matter and addressee'
  • So scholars have organized Shakespeare's 154 sonnets into different groups based on who they're written to and what they're about.

The sentence continues after a semicolon to give us specific details:

• 'specifically, the poems numbered 1 through 126...'
  • Now we're zooming in on a particular group - the poems numbered 1 through 126.

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

• 'the poems numbered 1 through 126 _____ dedicated to a young man'

Let's look at our choices:

• The word we need must work with 'the poems' as the subject.
• 'The poems' is PLURAL - we're talking about multiple poems (poems 1, 2, 3... all the way to 126).
• The phrase 'numbered 1 through 126' is just telling us WHICH poems - it's a describing phrase.
• So we need a plural verb: are matches 'the poems.'

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

• 'while sonnets 127 through 154 focus on a mysterious "Dark Lady."'
  • This creates a contrast - one group of poems is about a young man, while the other group is about a "Dark Lady."

The correct answer is B (are) because it agrees with the plural subject "the poems."

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Matching Verbs to Their True Subject (When Descriptive Phrases Create Distance)

When a verb needs to agree with its subject, you must identify the TRUE subject - not be distracted by words that come between the subject and verb. Descriptive phrases that tell you "which ones" don't change whether the subject is singular or plural:

Pattern:

• Subject (plural) + descriptive phrase + verb (must be plural)
• Subject (singular) + descriptive phrase + verb (must be singular)

Examples:

• The students in the advanced class are preparing for the exam.
  • Subject: "students" (plural)
  • Descriptive phrase: "in the advanced class" (tells which students)
  • Verb: "are" (plural to match "students")

• The book written by three authors is a bestseller.
  • Subject: "book" (singular)
  • Descriptive phrase: "written by three authors" (tells which book)
  • Verb: "is" (singular to match "book")

In this question:

• The poems numbered 1 through 126 are dedicated to a young man.
  • Subject: "poems" (plural)
  • Descriptive phrase: "numbered 1 through 126" (tells which poems)
  • Verb: "are" (plural to match "poems")

The phrase "numbered 1 through 126" describes WHICH poems we're talking about, but it doesn't change the fact that we're discussing multiple poems - so we need the plural verb "are."