Nuhād al-Ḥaddād, known as Fairuz, was one of the most beloved Lebanese singers of the twentieth century. Her broad singing...

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

• Nuhad al-Haddad,
• known as Fairuz,
• was one of the most beloved Lebanese singers of the twentieth century.
• Her broad singing repertoire
  • —which included traditional forms,
    • such as the Arabic qasida and maqam,
    • alongside modern pop and jazz styles—
• lent Fairuz a timeless, cross-generational appeal,
• (?) her the moniker 'the soul of Lebanon.'

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence introduces us to the subject:

• Nuhad al-Haddad, known as Fairuz
  • was one of the most beloved Lebanese singers of the twentieth century.

Now the second sentence tells us about her singing:

• Her broad singing repertoire
  • (we get details here: it included traditional forms like qasida and maqam, plus modern styles like pop and jazz)
  • lent Fairuz a timeless, cross-generational appeal

So her diverse repertoire gave her an appeal that crossed generations.

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

• A: earned
• B: had earned
• C: earning
• D: earn

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

The sentence continues: "(?) her the moniker 'the soul of Lebanon.'"

So the complete idea is:

• Her repertoire gave her cross-generational appeal
• And this resulted in her getting the nickname 'the soul of Lebanon'

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The sentence already has its main verb: lent
  • "Her repertoire lent Fairuz a timeless appeal" - this is the main action
• After the comma, we're adding extra information about what happened as a result
  • This isn't starting a whole new sentence
  • It's describing an additional consequence of that appeal
• When we want to add describing information like this after a complete thought,
  • we use the -ing form
  • This creates a describing phrase (rather than a second main action)

So we need earning - the -ing form that adds descriptive information about the result of her having that appeal.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using -ing Forms to Add Descriptive Information About Results

When you have a complete thought (with its own subject and verb) and want to add information about what resulted from that action, you can use a comma followed by an -ing form (called a present participle in grammar terms):

Pattern:

• Main clause: Her repertoire lent her widespread appeal
• + Result/consequence: , earning her the moniker 'the soul of Lebanon'

The -ing form creates what we call a participial phrase - it's not acting as the main verb, but rather as a describing element that tells us more about the effect or consequence of the main action.

More examples:

• The storm destroyed the coastal town, displacing thousands of residents
  • Main action: destroyed
  • Additional result: displacing (describes what happened as a consequence)
• The athlete broke the world record, securing her place in Olympic history
  • Main action: broke
  • Additional result: securing (describes what this achievement led to)

Why this matters for the question:

Since "lent" is already the main verb doing the primary action in our sentence, we need the -ing form "earning" to add the additional information about the consequence without trying to create a second main verb.