In forecasting weather events, meteorologists sometimes discuss the role of atmospheric rivers. What are atmospheric rivers, and how ______ Part...

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

Sentence 1:

• In forecasting weather events,
• meteorologists sometimes discuss the role of atmospheric rivers.

Sentence 2:

• What are atmospheric rivers,
• and how [do they affect our weather OR they do affect our weather] [. OR ?]

Sentence 3:

• Part of the water cycle,
• atmospheric rivers are narrow channels of moisture moving through the atmosphere.

Sentence 4:

• In certain conditions,
• these 'rivers' can release some of their moisture as precipitation.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

The first sentence introduces the topic:

• "In forecasting weather events, meteorologists sometimes discuss the role of atmospheric rivers."
  • So meteorologists talk about atmospheric rivers when predicting weather.

Now the second sentence begins:

• "What are atmospheric rivers, and how ______"

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

• Choice A: do they affect our weather.
• Choice B: they do affect our weather.
• Choice C: do they affect our weather?
• Choice D: they do affect our weather?

What am I deciding between?

• Word order: "do they affect" (inverted) vs. "they do affect" (standard)
• Punctuation: period vs. question mark

To see what works here, I need to understand what this sentence is doing!

What do we notice about the structure?

• The sentence starts with "What are atmospheric rivers"
  • This is clearly asking a question - "What are" is a question phrase
• Then it continues: "and how ______"
  • The word "and" connects two related parts
  • After "What are," we now have "how"
  • This means we have TWO questions being asked together
• So the structure is:
  • Question 1: What are atmospheric rivers
  • and
  • Question 2: how ______ our weather

When we ask questions that start with words like "how," what structure do we need?

• We need inverted word order - the helping verb comes before the subject
  • "how DO THEY affect" (not "how they do affect")
  • This is the natural pattern for questions
• And of course, questions need to end with a question mark, not a period!

So we need: do they affect our weather?

The correct answer is Choice C.

Let me verify by reading what comes next:

• "Part of the water cycle, atmospheric rivers are narrow channels of moisture moving through the atmosphere."
  • This is answering the first question - telling us WHAT atmospheric rivers are
• "In certain conditions, these 'rivers' can release some of their moisture as precipitation."
  • This relates to the second question - explaining HOW they affect our weather

Yes! The passage asks two questions, then provides the answers. This confirms we need proper question structure with inverted word order and a question mark.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Forming Questions with Interrogative Words

When we ask questions using interrogative words (what, how, when, where, why), we need two key elements:

1. Inverted word order: The auxiliary (helping) verb comes BEFORE the subject

• Statement: They affect our weather (subject + verb)
• Question: How do they affect our weather? (interrogative word + auxiliary verb + subject + main verb)

2. Question mark at the end: All questions must end with a question mark, not a period

The pattern:

Interrogative word + auxiliary verb + subject + main verb + ?
How + do + they + affect + ?

Compound questions: When two questions are connected with "and," both parts maintain question structure:

• "What are atmospheric rivers, and how do they affect our weather?"
• First question: "What are atmospheric rivers"
• Second question: "how do they affect our weather"
• Both need: inverted word order + question mark

In this question: The sentence asks two related questions. After the interrogative word "how," we need the inverted structure "do they affect" (not "they do affect") and must end with a question mark.