In Marisol's 1968 sculpture Mi Mama y Yo, gone are the types of pop culture references that made the Parisian-born...

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 Marisol's 1968 sculpture Mi Mama y Yo,
  • gone are the types of pop culture references
    • that made the Parisian-born Venezuelan American artist a star at the height of the pop art movement.

Sentence 2:

• In (?) place
  • is a far more personal subject:
    • a sculptural depiction of the artist as a young girl with her mother.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

The first sentence tells us about Marisol's sculpture and what's NOT in it:

• 'In Marisol's 1968 sculpture Mi Mama y Yo'
  • This is setting the scene - we're talking about a specific artwork

• 'gone are the types of pop culture references'
  • The pop culture references are absent from this sculpture
  • Notice "types" is plural - we're talking about multiple kinds of references

• 'that made the Parisian-born Venezuelan American artist a star at the height of the pop art movement'
  • These references had previously made her famous
  • But they're gone from THIS sculpture

Now we move to the second sentence, and this is where we have the blank:

• 'In ______ place'

Let's look at our choices:

• A. its
• B. they're
• C. their
• D. it's

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

• 'In ______ place is a far more personal subject'
  • Something is replacing those pop culture references
  • That something is "a far more personal subject"

• 'a sculptural depiction of the artist as a young girl with her mother'
  • This is what the sculpture actually shows instead

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The phrase "in ______ place" is an expression meaning "instead" or "as a replacement"
  • We're saying: instead of X, we now have Y
  • Instead of the pop culture references, we have something personal

• This blank word needs to refer back to what was just mentioned:
  • "the types of pop culture references"
  • This is PLURAL (we're talking about "types" - multiple things)

• The word we need must be:
  • Possessive (the expression is "in their place" or "in its place")
  • Plural (to match "types of pop culture references")

Looking at our choices:

• "their" is possessive AND plural ✓
• "its" is possessive but singular ✗
• "they're" means "they are" (not possessive) ✗
• "it's" means "it is" (not possessive) ✗

So we need their - the plural possessive that correctly refers back to "types of pop culture references."

Grammar Concept Applied

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Possessives

When you use a possessive pronoun, it must agree in number with the noun it refers back to (called the antecedent in grammar terms). Here's how it works:

Pattern 1: Plural antecedent → plural possessive

• The students submitted their projects.
• "students" = plural antecedent
• "their" = plural possessive

Pattern 2: Singular antecedent → singular possessive

• The company released its annual report.
• "company" = singular antecedent
• "its" = singular possessive

In our question:

• Antecedent: "the types of pop culture references" (PLURAL)
• Possessive needed: "their" (PLURAL)
• Result: "In their place is a far more personal subject"

Important distinction - Possessives vs. Contractions:

• their = possessive (belonging to them)
• they're = contraction (they are)
• its = possessive (belonging to it)
• it's = contraction (it is)

The idiom "in _____ place" (meaning "instead" or "as a replacement") always requires the possessive form, never a contraction.