In her 1983 book The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild first explored at length her...

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 her 1983 book The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling,
  • sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild
    • first explored at length
      • her conception of a 'sociology of emotions'—
        • the idea that
          • the various cultural and ideological frameworks
            • a person has internalized
              • (class, gender, political affiliation, etc.)
                • [?]
                  • each emotional reaction
                    • that person has
                      • within a situation.

Understanding the Meaning

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

The sentence opens with context:

• 'In her 1983 book The Managed Heart...'
  • This tells us when and where Hochschild presented her ideas

• 'sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild first explored at length her conception of a "sociology of emotions"'
  • So Hochschild explored/developed an idea she called 'sociology of emotions'

Then we get a dash (—) which signals:

• What follows will explain or define what "sociology of emotions" means

After the dash, we read:

• 'the idea that...'
  • This introduces the explanation of what the sociology of emotions is

Now let's read the rest and understand what this idea actually says:

• 'the various cultural and ideological frameworks a person has internalized (class, gender, political affiliation, etc.)'
  • These are the frameworks - things like class, gender, political beliefs
  • A person has internalized them (absorbed them into their worldview)

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• We're deciding between different forms of the same verb: "underlies" (singular), "is underlying" (singular progressive), "underlie" (plural), and "has been underlying" (singular perfect progressive)

To see what works here, let's read the complete thought and understand the structure:

• 'the various cultural and ideological frameworks... ______ each emotional reaction that person has within a situation'

So the sentence is saying these frameworks do something to each emotional reaction.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The subject of this part is 'the various cultural and ideological frameworks'
  • This is PLURAL - we're talking about multiple frameworks

• Between the subject and where the verb goes, we have some phrases:
  • 'a person has internalized' - this describes which frameworks we mean
  • '(class, gender, political affiliation, etc.)' - these are examples

• But these middle phrases don't change what the subject is
  • The subject is still 'frameworks' (plural)

• After the blank, we see 'each emotional reaction that person has within a situation'
  • This is what the frameworks act upon

So we need a verb that agrees with 'the various cultural and ideological frameworks' - a PLURAL subject.

The correct answer is C. underlie - the plural form that matches our plural subject 'frameworks.'

The complete meaning: Hochschild's idea is that the various frameworks a person has internalized (like class, gender, political beliefs) underlie - or form the basis of - each emotional reaction that person has.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Subject-Verb Agreement with Separated Subjects

The basic rule is that verbs must agree in number with their subjects - singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs. The challenge comes when the subject and verb are separated by other phrases or clauses.

The pattern:

• Subject (PLURAL) + [intervening phrases that might distract you] + Verb (must be PLURAL)

Example 1:

• The books on the shelf need to be organized
  • Subject: "The books" (plural)
  • Intervening phrase: "on the shelf"
  • Verb: "need" (plural) ✓

Example 2:

• The student who has three difficult classes is studying hard
  • Subject: "The student" (singular)
  • Intervening phrase: "who has three difficult classes"
  • Verb: "is" (singular) ✓

In our question:

• Subject: "the various cultural and ideological frameworks" (PLURAL)
• Intervening phrases:
  • "a person has internalized"
  • "(class, gender, political affiliation, etc.)"
• Correct verb: "underlie" (PLURAL) ✓

Key strategy: Always identify the true subject of the verb, ignoring modifying phrases that come between them. Don't be distracted by singular nouns that appear closer to the verb - trace back to find what the verb is actually describing or acting upon.