Modern historians recognize the profound impact of the Harlem Renaissance on American culture. Scholars emphasize that this movement _____ African...

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

• Modern historians
  • recognize
    • the profound impact
      • of the Harlem Renaissance
      • on American culture.

• Scholars
  • emphasize
    • that this movement [?] African American literature, music, and visual arts
      • during the 1920s and 1930s.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start with the first sentence:

• 'Modern historians recognize the profound impact of the Harlem Renaissance on American culture.'
  • This tells us what historians today understand about the Harlem Renaissance – they see it had a big impact on American culture.

Now the second sentence:

• 'Scholars emphasize that this movement...'
  • 'Scholars emphasize' is telling us what scholars are currently saying
  • 'this movement' refers back to the Harlem Renaissance

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

• They're all forms of the verb 'transform' but in different tenses
• We need to figure out which tense fits

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence:

• '_____ African American literature, music, and visual arts during the 1920s and 1930s.'

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• 'during the 1920s and 1930s'
  • This is a specific time period in the past
  • It tells us WHEN this transformation happened

• The complete meaning:
  • Scholars today are emphasizing something about what the Harlem Renaissance DID
  • What it did was transform African American arts
  • This transforming happened during the 1920s and 1930s

What do we notice about the structure here?

• 'Scholars emphasize' is in present tense
  • because it's describing what scholars do NOW – their current view

• But the content of what they're emphasizing – what the movement actually did –
  • happened in the PAST during a specific time period (1920s and 1930s)

• When we describe an action that happened at a specific time in the past,
  • we use simple past tense

So we need transformed – simple past tense to match the time indicator 'during the 1920s and 1930s.'

The correct answer is Choice C: transformed

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Matching Verb Tense to Time Indicators

When a sentence includes a time indicator that points to a specific period, your verb tense must match that time frame. Even when the main verb is in present tense (describing current beliefs or statements), subordinate clauses describing past events need past tense verbs.

The Pattern:

Present tense verb (current statement) + time indicator (past) = past tense verb

Examples:

• Main clause (present): Scientists now believe
• Subordinate clause: that the meteor struck Earth 66 million years ago
• The believing is happening now (present: believe)
• But the striking happened in the past (past: struck)
• Time indicator "66 million years ago" signals we need past tense

• Main clause (present): Historians note
• Subordinate clause: that the empire collapsed during the third century
• The noting is happening now (present: note)
• But the collapsing happened in the past (past: collapsed)
• Time indicator "during the third century" signals we need past tense

In this question:

• "Scholars emphasize" (present) describes what scholars currently do
• "transformed...during the 1920s and 1930s" (past) describes what happened then
• The time indicator "during the 1920s and 1930s" makes it clear we need simple past tense: transformed