In the 1930s, photographer Dorothea Lange emerged as a defining voice of the Great Depression era. Her powerful photographs of...

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 1930s, photographer Dorothea Lange emerged as a defining voice of the Great Depression era. Her powerful photographs of migrant families in California, a haunting collection capturing the dignity of people facing extreme hardship (each of which tells a story of resilience), were instrumental in building public support for federal relief programs.

Understanding the Meaning

• In the 1930s, photographer Dorothea Lange emerged as a defining voice of the Great Depression era.
  • This gives us the historical context and introduces Dorothea Lange.
• Her powerful photographs of migrant families in California,
  • This is what we're talking about - her photographs.
  • These photographs showed migrant families in California.
• A haunting collection capturing the dignity of people facing extreme hardship (each of which tells a story of resilience),
  • This phrase gives us more details about those photographs.
  • It describes them as a collection.
  • It tells us what they captured: the dignity of people in hardship.
  • The parenthetical adds that each photograph tells a story of resilience.
• This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices - they're asking us to choose between:

• was/has been (singular verbs)
• were/are (plural verbs)
• And different tenses (past vs. present)

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

• _____ instrumental in building public support for federal relief programs.
  • This tells us the photographs were instrumental (they played a key role) in building public support for government help programs.

Now let's understand the complete picture:

• The sentence is making a statement about what her photographs did - they were instrumental in building support for relief programs.
• This happened in the 1930s (past events).

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The main subject is 'Her powerful photographs'
  • 'Photographs' is plural.
• Between the subject and where the verb goes, there's a long descriptive phrase:
  • 'a haunting collection capturing the dignity...'
  • This phrase is set off by commas on both sides.
  • It's giving us extra information ABOUT the photographs.
• But here's the key: even though this descriptive phrase contains the singular word 'collection,' it's just additional description.
  • The verb still needs to agree with the actual subject: 'photographs' (plural).
• Also, we're talking about events in the 1930s, so we need past tense.

So we need a plural verb in past tense to match 'photographs': were

The correct answer is C.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Subject-Verb Agreement with Intervening Descriptive Phrases

When a descriptive phrase (called an appositive in grammar terms) comes between a subject and its verb, the verb must agree with the main subject, not with any nouns inside that descriptive phrase. Additionally, the verb tense must match the time context of the sentence.

The Pattern:

• Subject (plural or singular)
• Descriptive phrase with different number noun (set off by commas)
• Verb must match the original subject

Example 1:

• The students, a group numbering over fifty, were excited for the trip
  • Subject: "students" (plural)
  • Descriptive phrase: "a group" (singular)
  • Verb: "were" (plural - matches "students")

Example 2:

• The discovery, findings that surprised researchers, was announced yesterday
  • Subject: "discovery" (singular)
  • Descriptive phrase: "findings" (plural)
  • Verb: "was" (singular - matches "discovery")

In this question:

• Subject: "Her powerful photographs" (plural)
• Descriptive phrase: "a haunting collection..." (singular)
• Correct verb: "were" (plural - matches "photographs" AND past tense for 1930s)

The key is to identify the main subject before the descriptive phrase begins, then make sure your verb agrees with that subject, ignoring the nouns tucked inside the comma-separated description.