In 2018, the innovative works of Congolese sculptor and architect Bodys Isek ______ were featured in City Dreams, a solo...

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 2018, the innovative works of Congolese sculptor and architect Bodys Isek Kingelez [?] were featured in City Dreams, a solo exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning: In 2018, the innovative works of Congolese sculptor and architect Bodys Isek Kingelez...

So we're being told about certain works - specifically, the innovative works made by Bodys Isek Kingelez, who was a Congolese sculptor and architect.

Now we've reached the blank. This is where we need to decide what punctuation, if any, should come after "Kingelez." Let's look at our choices:

• A semicolon (;)
• A comma (,)
• No punctuation
• A colon (:)

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

...were featured in City Dreams, a solo exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

So the sentence is telling us what happened to these works - they were featured in an exhibition called City Dreams at the Museum of Modern Art.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• "The innovative works of Bodys Isek Kingelez" = the subject
  • This is what the sentence is about
• "were featured in City Dreams..." = the verb and where it happened
  • This tells us what happened to those works

The subject flows naturally into the verb - they're the two essential parts that need to connect smoothly. There's nothing between them that needs to be separated or set off with punctuation.

So we need no punctuation after "Kingelez." The answer is C.

Grammar Concept Applied

Connecting Subjects to Verbs Without Punctuation

One of the fundamental principles in English sentence structure is that the subject (what the sentence is about) flows directly into the verb (what's happening) without punctuation between them:

Pattern:

• Subject + Verb (no punctuation between)

Examples:

1. Incorrect: The students, arrived late.
   Correct: The students arrived late.
2. Incorrect: My favorite book by that author; won several awards.
   Correct: My favorite book by that author won several awards.
3. Incorrect: The new policies regarding remote work: take effect next month.
   Correct: The new policies regarding remote work take effect next month.

In this question:

• Subject: "The innovative works of Congolese sculptor and architect Bodys Isek Kingelez"
• Verb: "were featured"
• These must connect directly without any punctuation interrupting their natural relationship

Note: This rule applies even when the subject is long or contains descriptive phrases (called modifying phrases in grammar terms). The length doesn't change the rule - subject and verb still connect without punctuation.