On April 5, 1977, Kitty Cone and 150 other disability rights activists entered a San Francisco federal building. After pleading...

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:

• On April 5, 1977,
  • Kitty Cone and 150 other disability rights activists
    • entered a San Francisco federal building.

Sentence 2:

• After pleading for years
  • —to no effect—
  • for the passage of key antidiscrimination legislation,
• [?] until their demands were addressed.

Sentence 3:

• Finally, on April 28,
  • the legislation was signed.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's read from the beginning to understand what's happening:

Sentence 1 tells us:

• On April 5, 1977, Kitty Cone and 150 other disability rights activists entered a San Francisco federal building.
  • So we have activists entering a federal building.

Now sentence 2 begins:

• 'After pleading for years—to no effect—for the passage of key antidiscrimination legislation,'
  • The activists had been pleading for years for legislation
  • The note "to no effect" means their pleading hadn't worked - they weren't getting results

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank.

Let's look at our choices. They each put a different subject after that comma:

• A: "pressure on lawmakers increased"
• B: "a sit-in protest staged by the activists increased pressure"
• C: "lawmakers came under increased pressure"
• D: "the activists increased pressure"

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The sentence starts with 'After pleading for years...'
  • This phrase is describing an action: pleading
  • It's telling us what happened BEFORE the main action

• The question is: WHO was doing this pleading?
  • From the context, it was the activists who were pleading
  • Not the pressure, not a protest, not the lawmakers - the activists

• When a sentence starts with a describing phrase like this that contains an action, the subject right after the comma needs to be whoever was performing that action.
  • Otherwise, the sentence suggests the wrong thing was doing the action
  • Like saying "pressure" was pleading or "lawmakers" were pleading - which doesn't match what actually happened

So we need: the activists to be the subject right after the comma.

That's Choice D: "the activists increased pressure on lawmakers by staging a sit-in protest"

Now let's read the complete sentence to verify:

• "After pleading for years—to no effect—for the passage of key antidiscrimination legislation, the activists increased pressure on lawmakers by staging a sit-in protest until their demands were addressed."

This flows logically:

• The activists were pleading (introductory phrase)
• Then the activists took action by staging a sit-in (main action)
• They kept up the protest until their demands were addressed

Sentence 3 wraps it up:

• "Finally, on April 28, the legislation was signed."
  • Their sit-in protest worked - the legislation got signed!

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Introductory Modifying Phrases: Matching the Action to the Doer

When a sentence begins with a phrase that describes an action (often starting with words like "After," "Before," "While," "By," or verb forms like "Walking" or "Hoping"), the subject immediately after the comma must be whoever or whatever can logically perform that action.

Pattern:

• [Describing phrase with action], [doer of that action] [main verb]...

Example 1:

• Wrong: "After studying for hours, the test seemed easier."
  • This suggests the test was studying, which is illogical
• Correct: "After studying for hours, Maria found the test easier."
  • Maria was studying, so Maria is correctly placed as the subject

Example 2:

• Wrong: "While preparing dinner, the smoke alarm went off."
  • This suggests the smoke alarm was preparing dinner
• Correct: "While preparing dinner, I heard the smoke alarm go off."
  • I was preparing dinner, so I am correctly placed as the subject

In this question:

• The introductory phrase is "After pleading for years...for the passage of key antidiscrimination legislation"
• Who was pleading? The activists
• Therefore, "the activists" must be the subject right after the comma
• Choice D correctly places "the activists" as the subject: "the activists increased pressure on lawmakers by staging a sit-in protest"

This rule prevents what's called a "dangling modifier" (in grammar terms) - when a describing phrase doesn't properly connect to what it's supposed to describe, creating confusing or illogical meaning.