Marine ecologists studying the Caribbean Sea have documented significant changes in water temperature and acidity levels. Their comprehensive report s...

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

• Marine ecologists
  • studying the Caribbean Sea
• have documented significant changes
  • in water temperature and acidity levels.

• Their comprehensive report
  • synthesizes decades of field observations
    • to explain the [?] of the [?]
      • that have adapted
        • to these increasingly challenging conditions.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's read from the beginning to understand what this passage is telling us:

The first sentence gives us the context:

• Marine ecologists studying the Caribbean Sea
  • These are scientists who study ocean life in the Caribbean
• have documented significant changes in water temperature and acidity levels
  • They've recorded that the ocean is getting warmer and more acidic

Now the second sentence tells us what their report does:

• Their comprehensive report synthesizes decades of field observations

This is where we have the blank: "to explain the ______ that have adapted to these increasingly challenging conditions."

Let's look at the choices:

• A: strategy's of the coral species'
• B: strategies of the coral species
• C: strategies' of the coral specie's
• D: strategy's of the coral specie's

We're deciding about apostrophes and whether words should be singular or plural. To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The complete phrase is:

• "to explain the ______ of the coral ______ that have adapted to these increasingly challenging conditions"

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• "that have adapted"
  • This is a plural verb phrase ("have" not "has")
  • So we're talking about multiple coral species - more than one

• What is the report explaining?
  • The ways that these multiple coral species adapted
  • The methods or approaches they used - their strategies
  • Since we have multiple species, and each might adapt differently, we need plural "strategies"

• What about "species"?
  • "Species" is one of those special words (like "deer" or "sheep") that is the same whether you're talking about one or many
  • One species, two species, many species - same spelling
  • The verb "have adapted" confirms we mean plural here

What do we notice about apostrophes here?

• We're not showing possession (something belonging to something else)
• We're simply saying: multiple strategies
• And: multiple species
• These are just regular plural forms - no apostrophes needed

So we need: "strategies of the coral species" - both plural, no apostrophes.

The correct answer is B.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Understanding Plural Forms vs. Possessive Forms

One of the most common punctuation challenges is knowing when to use an apostrophe with words ending in 's'. Here's the key distinction:

Plural forms (just adding -s or -es):

• When you're talking about more than one of something, you usually just add -s or -es
• NO apostrophe needed for regular plurals
• Examples:
  • "The scientists conducted studies" (more than one study)
  • "Multiple strategies work" (more than one strategy)
  • "The coral species have adapted" (more than one species - and "species" stays the same!)

Possessive forms (showing ownership):

• When something belongs to someone or something, you use an apostrophe
• Singular possessive: add 's → "the strategy's effectiveness" (the effectiveness of the strategy)
• Plural possessive: add s' → "the strategies' effectiveness" (the effectiveness of the strategies)

Special case - words like "species":

• Some words are the same whether singular or plural: species, deer, sheep, fish
• One species = "the species is"
• Many species = "the species are"
• Context (like the verb) tells you which meaning

In our question:

• "strategies" = simple plural (many adaptation methods)
• "of the coral species" = plural form of species (confirmed by "have adapted")
• No possession = no apostrophes needed
• Answer: "strategies of the coral species"