In the 1920s, while excavating ancient Mesopotamian sites, archaeologist Leonard Woolley uncovered elaborate burial chambers filled with treasures. Hi...

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 the 1920s,
  • while excavating ancient Mesopotamian sites,
• archaeologist Leonard Woolley
  • uncovered elaborate burial chambers
    • filled with treasures.

• His detailed documentation
  • revealed that Sumerian artisans employed [?] methods of metalworking
    • far more advanced than scholars had previously assumed.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

"In the 1920s, while excavating ancient Mesopotamian sites, archaeologist Leonard Woolley uncovered elaborate burial chambers filled with treasures."

This first sentence gives us context:

• In the 1920s, an archaeologist named Leonard Woolley was digging at ancient sites in Mesopotamia
• He found burial chambers full of treasures

Now the second sentence:
"His detailed documentation revealed that Sumerian artisans employed..."

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

• A: employed; the
• B: employed. The
• C: employed, the
• D: employed the

So we're deciding what punctuation (if any) comes between "employed" and "the methods."

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

"...methods of metalworking far more advanced than scholars had previously assumed."

Now let's understand what this complete thought is telling us:

• Woolley's documentation showed something about Sumerian artisans
• Specifically, that they "employed methods of metalworking"
• These methods were "far more advanced than scholars had previously assumed"

What do we notice about the structure here?

• "Employed" is a verb that needs an object
  • You can't just say "they employed" and stop - you need to say what they employed
  • The object is "the methods of metalworking"
• This is a core grammatical relationship: verb + object
  • These two elements work together as a fundamental unit
  • They shouldn't be separated by any punctuation

So we need Choice D: "employed the"

This creates the natural flow: "Sumerian artisans employed the methods of metalworking far more advanced than scholars had previously assumed."

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Keeping Verbs Connected to Their Objects

When a verb needs an object to complete its meaning (called a transitive verb in grammar terms), no punctuation should separate the verb from that object. The verb and its object work together as a fundamental grammatical unit.

The Pattern:

• Subject + Verb + Object (no punctuation between verb and object)

Examples:

1. ✓ Correct: "The archaeologist discovered ancient treasures in the tomb."
   • "discovered" (verb) + "treasures" (object) = connected directly

   ✗ Incorrect: "The archaeologist discovered, ancient treasures in the tomb."

   • Comma incorrectly separates verb from object
2. ✓ Correct: "His research revealed the true age of the artifacts."
   • "revealed" (verb) + "age" (object) = connected directly

   ✗ Incorrect: "His research revealed. The true age of the artifacts."

   • Period incorrectly separates and creates fragment

In this question:

• "Employed" (verb) needs "the methods" (object)
• They must connect directly: "employed the methods"
• Any punctuation between them disrupts this core relationship

VERIFICATION OUTPUT

Content Genre: Humanities & Social Sciences
Grammar Concept Tested: Sentence Structure/Fragments/Run-ons
Sentence Complexity: Moderate
Pattern: B