Legal scholars James Melton and Tom Ginsburg's analysis of de jure judicial independence and its growth over decades _______ six...

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

• Legal scholars James Melton and Tom Ginsburg's analysis
  • of de jure judicial independence
    • and its growth over decades
• (?) six constitutional features
  • that enhance such independence,
    • including judicial tenure and selection procedure.
• Albania's constitution contains five of these features.

Understanding the Meaning

The sentence starts by introducing whose work we're talking about:

• "Legal scholars James Melton and Tom Ginsburg's analysis"
  • This is talking about a specific analysis
  • It belongs to two legal scholars named James Melton and Tom Ginsburg

Then we learn what the analysis is about:

• "of de jure judicial independence and its growth over decades"
  • "De jure" means official or formal (according to law)
  • So the analysis looks at formal judicial independence and how it has grown

This is where we have the blank:

• "______ six constitutional features"

Let's look at our choices. They're all different forms of a verb, so we need to figure out:

• Whether we need singular or plural
• What the subject of this verb is

Here's the key question: What is actually doing the identifying? Let me look at the sentence structure:

• "Legal scholars James Melton and Tom Ginsburg's"
  • This whole phrase has an 's at the end - it's possessive
  • It's describing whose analysis it is

• So the subject - the thing doing the action - is "analysis"
  • "Analysis" is singular
  • We need a singular verb to match

Looking at our choices:

• A. "are identifying" - plural
• B. "identify" - plural
• C. "have identified" - plural
• D. "identifies" - singular ✓

The correct answer is D. identifies - it's the only singular verb that agrees with the singular subject "analysis."

Now let's read the rest to see the complete picture:

• "six constitutional features that enhance such independence"
  • The analysis identifies six specific features in constitutions
  • These features help strengthen judicial independence

• "including judicial tenure and selection procedure"
  • These are examples of the types of features

The second sentence adds context:

• "Albania's constitution contains five of these features"
  • This gives us a real example - Albania has five of the six features

Grammar Concept Applied

Finding the True Subject in Possessive Phrases

When you see a possessive phrase (with 's or s'), the actual subject of the sentence is often what comes AFTER the possessive, not the words within the possessive phrase itself.

Pattern:

• [Possessive phrase] + NOUN (subject) + VERB (must agree with that noun)

Examples:

1. The students' report shows significant findings.
   • Possessive phrase: "The students'" (plural)
   • Subject: "report" (singular)
   • Verb: "shows" (singular) ✓
2. John and Mary's analysis identifies three key trends.
   • Possessive phrase: "John and Mary's" (two people)
   • Subject: "analysis" (singular)
   • Verb: "identifies" (singular) ✓
3. The researchers' conclusions support the hypothesis.
   • Possessive phrase: "The researchers'" (plural)
   • Subject: "conclusions" (plural)
   • Verb: "support" (plural) ✓

In this question:

• Possessive phrase: "Legal scholars James Melton and Tom Ginsburg's" (contains plural words)
• Subject: "analysis" (singular)
• Verb needed: "identifies" (singular) ✓

Why this is tricky: The possessive phrase contains multiple plural elements ("scholars," two names), which can make you think you need a plural verb. But the actual subject is the singular word "analysis" that comes after the possessive phrase.