In 2009, New York City transformed an abandoned elevated railway into an innovative public space. The High Line, celebrated for...

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 2009,
• New York City transformed an abandoned elevated railway
  • into an innovative public space.
• The High Line,
  • celebrated for its creative design,
  • (?) a model for urban renewal projects around the world.

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence sets up the context:

• 'In 2009, New York City transformed an abandoned elevated railway into an innovative public space.'
  • This tells us about a project where NYC converted an old railway into a public space.

Now the second sentence tells us more about this space:

• 'The High Line,'
  • This is the name of this public space - it's the subject of our sentence.
• 'celebrated for its creative design,'
  • This phrase, set off by commas, gives us extra information about The High Line - it's known for having creative design.

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

• 'The High Line _____ a model for urban renewal projects around the world.'

Let's look at our choices:

• We're deciding between different verb forms
• Some are singular (serves), some are plural (have served, are serving, serve)

What do we need here? Let's identify our subject:

• The subject is 'The High Line' - this is a singular noun (it's one specific project)
• The phrase 'celebrated for its creative design' is extra descriptive information set off by commas - it's not part of the subject
• We can test this by reading without that phrase: 'The High Line _____ a model' - we need a singular verb

So we need the singular form: serves

The complete meaning is:

• The High Line (this innovative public space in NYC) serves as a model for similar urban renewal projects happening elsewhere in the world.

The correct answer is D: serves

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Matching Verbs to Subjects When Descriptive Phrases Get in the Way

When a descriptive phrase comes between a subject and its verb, you need to ignore the interrupting information and make sure the verb matches the true subject in number:

The pattern:

• Subject (singular or plural)
• , descriptive phrase that can be removed,
• Verb (must match the subject, not the phrase)

Examples:

1. With interrupting phrase:
   • The scientist, along with her research assistants, presents the findings.
   • Subject: "The scientist" (singular)
   • Interrupting phrase: "along with her research assistants"
   • Verb: "presents" (singular to match "scientist")
2. Removing the phrase to check:
   • The scientist , along with her research assistants, presents the findings.
   • Now you can clearly see: "The scientist presents" ✓

In our question:

• Subject: "The High Line" (singular)
• Interrupting phrase: "celebrated for its creative design"
• Verb needed: "serves" (singular)
• Test: "The High Line , celebrated for its creative design, serves a model" ✓

Key strategy: When commas set off information between a subject and where the verb should go, mentally remove that information temporarily to identify what form of verb you need.