In 1776, Thomas Jefferson drafted a detailed manuscript outlining his vision for religious freedom in Virginia. Over two centuries later,...

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

• In 1776,
  • Thomas Jefferson
    • drafted a detailed manuscript
      • outlining his vision for religious freedom in Virginia.
• Over two centuries later,
  • in 1993,
    • [?]
      • added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register
        • as a document of global historical significance.
• Where [?] = they were / some were / this was / it was

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start by reading the first sentence:

'In 1776, Thomas Jefferson drafted a detailed manuscript outlining his vision for religious freedom in Virginia.'

So we have:

• Thomas Jefferson wrote a manuscript in 1776
• This manuscript was about religious freedom in Virginia

Now the second sentence begins:

'Over two centuries later, in 1993...'

• 'Over two centuries later' means about 200+ years after 1776
• So this is jumping forward to 1993

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

• A: they were
• B: some were
• C: this was
• D: it was

So we're deciding which pronoun works here. To understand what pronoun fits, let's read the rest of the sentence:

'______ added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register as a document of global historical significance.'

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• Something was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 1993
• It was recognized as historically significant

What do we notice?

The second sentence is talking about what happened to Jefferson's manuscript:

• The first sentence tells us: Jefferson drafted "a detailed manuscript"
• The second sentence tells us: this manuscript was added to a UNESCO register in 1993

We need a pronoun that refers back to "a detailed manuscript":

• "Manuscript" is singular
• We need a singular pronoun to match
• "It" is the correct pronoun for referring to a singular object (the manuscript)

So the correct answer is D: it was.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Pronouns Must Agree with What They Refer To

When you use a pronoun, it must match its antecedent (the noun it refers back to) in number—singular or plural. This is especially important when the pronoun and antecedent are in different sentences.

The pattern:

• Singular antecedent → singular pronoun
  • "The scientist made a discovery. It changed everything."
  • "discovery" (singular) → "it" (singular) (tick mark)
• Plural antecedent → plural pronoun
  • "The scientists made discoveries. They changed everything."
  • "discoveries" (plural) → "they" (plural) (tick mark)

What doesn't work:

• Singular antecedent → plural pronoun (cross)
  • "The scientist made a discovery. They changed everything."
  • "discovery" (singular) → "they" (plural) (cross)

In this question:

• Antecedent: "a detailed manuscript" (singular)
• Correct pronoun: "it" (singular)
• "In 1776, Thomas Jefferson drafted a detailed manuscript... in 1993, it was added to UNESCO's register."

The pronoun "it" correctly refers back to the singular noun "manuscript" from the previous sentence.