In 2015, archaeologist Dr. Maya Patel resigned from her tenured position at the University of Chicago ______ an international team...

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 2015,
• archaeologist Dr. Maya Patel
  • resigned from her tenured position at the University of Chicago
  • (?) an international team
    • excavating ancient Mayan sites in Guatemala.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

• 'In 2015'
  • sets the time - something happened in the past
• 'archaeologist Dr. Maya Patel resigned from her tenured position at the University of Chicago'
  • Dr. Patel left her permanent teaching job at the university

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• A. joins (present tense)
• B. to join (infinitive - 'to' + verb)
• C. joined (past tense)
• D. is joining (present progressive)

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

The sentence continues: '______ an international team excavating ancient Mayan sites in Guatemala.'

So we have:

• An international team
  • that's doing excavation work at ancient Mayan sites in Guatemala

Now let's understand what the complete sentence is telling us:

• Dr. Patel resigned from her university position [blank] an international team

What's the relationship here?

• The sentence isn't just listing two things that happened
  • It's not saying "she resigned AND THEN she joined"
• Instead, it's explaining WHY she resigned
  • She left her university job FOR THE PURPOSE OF joining this international team
  • The joining is the REASON for the resigning
• This is like saying:
  • "She went to the store to buy groceries" - buying is the purpose of going
  • "He studied hard to pass the exam" - passing is the purpose of studying

When we want to show the purpose or reason for doing something, we use the infinitive form: 'to' + verb

So we need: to join

This gives us: "Dr. Maya Patel resigned from her tenured position at the University of Chicago to join an international team excavating ancient Mayan sites in Guatemala."

The answer is B: to join

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Infinitives to Express Purpose

When you want to explain WHY someone did something - to show the purpose, reason, or goal behind an action - you use an infinitive (the word "to" + the base form of a verb):

Pattern: [Main action] + [infinitive showing purpose]

Example 1:

• She saved money to buy a car
• Main action: saved money
• Purpose: to buy a car (this is WHY she saved)

Example 2:

• They left early to avoid traffic
• Main action: left early
• Purpose: to avoid traffic (this is WHY they left)

Example 3:

• He called the doctor to schedule an appointment
• Main action: called
• Purpose: to schedule an appointment (this is WHY he called)

In our question:

• Dr. Maya Patel resigned from her tenured position to join an international team
• Main action: resigned
• Purpose: to join an international team (this is WHY she resigned)

The infinitive "to join" clearly shows that joining the team was her reason or goal for leaving her university position. This is much clearer than using "joined," which would just make it sound like two things happened one after another, without showing the connection between them.