In 1994, almost 200 years after the death of Wang Zhenyi, the International Astronomical _______ the contributions of the barrier-breaking...

Sentence Structure

• In 1994,
  • almost 200 years after the death of Wang Zhenyi,
    • the International Astronomical Union [?]
      • the contributions of the barrier-breaking 18th-century astronomer
        • and author of 'Dispute of the Procession of the Equinoxes,'
    • naming a crater on Venus after her.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning and understand what this sentence is telling us:

The sentence opens with time context:

• 'In 1994'
  • Sets when this event happened

• 'almost 200 years after the death of Wang Zhenyi'
  • Adds more time context - emphasizing how long after her death this was

Then we get the subject:

• 'the International Astronomical Union'
  • This is who did something in 1994

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices to see what we're deciding:

• A: would finally acknowledge (a complete verb)
• B: to finally acknowledge (an infinitive - "to" + verb)
• C: having finally acknowledged (a form ending in -ing with "having")
• D: finally acknowledging (a form ending in -ing)

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

The sentence continues:

• 'the contributions of the barrier-breaking 18th-century astronomer and author of 'Dispute of the Procession of the Equinoxes,'
  • This is what the Union did something with - they did something about her contributions
  • The phrase gives us details about Wang Zhenyi - she broke barriers, wrote this important work

• 'naming a crater on Venus after her'
  • This tells us HOW they recognized her contributions
  • They named a crater after her

So the complete picture is:

• In 1994, the International Astronomical Union recognized Wang Zhenyi's contributions by naming a Venus crater after her - nearly 200 years after her death.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We have a subject: 'the International Astronomical Union'
  • This subject needs a verb - it needs to DO something

• The phrase 'naming a crater on Venus after her' is describing or providing details about HOW they recognized her
  • But it's not the main action itself
  • It's additional information about the manner of recognition

• So we need a complete verb that can tell us what the Union DID
  • Not just a verb-like form, but an actual verb that can serve as the main action

Looking at our choices with this understanding:

• Only Choice A 'would finally acknowledge' gives us a complete verb
  • 'Would acknowledge' is a full verb phrase that can serve as the main action
  • The other choices are verb-like forms (infinitives or -ing forms) that can't be the main verb on their own

So we need Choice A: 'would finally acknowledge' - this provides the main verb the sentence requires.

Grammar Concept Applied

Complete Sentences Need Main Verbs (Not Just Verb-Like Forms)

Every complete sentence needs a subject and a main verb - a verb form that can actually perform the action of the sentence. Some verb forms that look like verbs cannot function as the main verb:

Main verb forms (CAN be the main verb):

• Simple forms: acknowledge, acknowledged
• With helping verbs (called modals): would acknowledge, can acknowledge, should acknowledge
• Progressive with "be": is acknowledging, was acknowledging

Verb-like forms (CANNOT be the main verb alone):

• Infinitives: to acknowledge
• Participles: acknowledging, having acknowledged

Pattern in this question:

• Subject: the International Astronomical Union
• Needs: main verb - "would finally acknowledge" ✓
• Not: infinitive - "to finally acknowledge" ✗
• Not: participles - "having finally acknowledged" or "finally acknowledging" ✗

The sentence structure is: [Subject] + [Main Verb] + [Object], with "naming a crater..." providing additional descriptive information about how the acknowledgment happened.