Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier's star quilt poems offer an unusually open-ended reading experience. With ________ eight panels 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

Sentence 1:

• Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier's star quilt poems
  • offer an unusually open-ended reading experience.

Sentence 2:

• With (?) eight panels of text stitched together in the shape of a traditional eight-pointed Lakota star quilt,
  • the poems
    • present viewers with a seemingly infinite number of ways to read them.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start with the first sentence to get our bearings:

• "Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier's star quilt poems offer an unusually open-ended reading experience."
  • This introduces us to a specific type of poems - star quilt poems by Layli Long Soldier
  • These poems give readers an open-ended experience (meaning there's not just one way to read them)

Now the second sentence builds on this idea:

• "With ______ eight panels of text..."

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

• A. their (possessive - belonging to them)
• B. it's (contraction - it is)
• C. they're (contraction - they are)
• D. its (possessive - belonging to it)

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

The full sentence tells us:

• "With ______ eight panels of text stitched together in the shape of a traditional eight-pointed Lakota star quilt, the poems present viewers with a seemingly infinite number of ways to read them."

Now let's really understand what this is telling us:

• The sentence is describing how these poems are structured:
  • They have eight panels of text
  • These panels are stitched together like a traditional star quilt
  • This structure gives readers many ways to read them

• The main subject doing the action is "the poems"
  • "The poems present viewers with..."
  • This is plural - we're talking about multiple poems

• The introductory phrase "With ______ eight panels of text..." is describing something that belongs to these poems
  • We're saying the poems have/possess these eight panels
  • So we need a possessive word

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We need a word that shows possession (the panels belong to the poems)
• The poems (plural) need a plural possessive pronoun to match

• Two choices are contractions: "it's" (it is) and "they're" (they are)
  • These wouldn't make sense: "With it is eight panels" or "With they are eight panels"

• Two choices are possessives: "its" (singular) and "their" (plural)
  • Since "the poems" is plural, we need the plural possessive

So we need their - the plural possessive pronoun that matches with "the poems."

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Matching Possessive Pronouns to Their Antecedents

When you need to show that something belongs to a noun you mentioned (called the antecedent in grammar terms), you must choose a possessive pronoun that matches in number:

Pattern 1: Plural Antecedent → Plural Possessive

• The students completed their projects.
• "Students" is plural → use "their" (plural possessive)

Pattern 2: Singular Antecedent → Singular Possessive

• The company announced its quarterly results.
• "Company" is singular → use "its" (singular possessive)

Common Trap: Possessives vs. Contractions

• Their = possessive (belonging to them)
• They're = they are (contraction)
• Its = possessive (belonging to it)
• It's = it is (contraction)

In this question:

• Antecedent: "the poems" (plural)
• What belongs to them: "eight panels of text"
• Correct possessive: "their" (plural possessive matching plural antecedent)