Po'Pay was a Tewa leader from Ohkay Owingeh, a pueblo located about twenty-five miles north of present-day Santa Fe, New...

Sentence Structure

• Sentence 1:
  • Po'Pay was a Tewa leader from Ohkay Owingeh, a pueblo located about twenty-five miles north of present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• Sentence 2:
  • He was instrumental in organizing the Pueblo Revolt of 1680[?]
  • as a result of his leadership,
  • the Spanish colonizers were expelled from the region for a time.

• [?] =
  • A: (nothing)
  • B: and
  • C: ,
  • D: , and

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start by reading the first sentence:

• Po'Pay was a Tewa leader from Ohkay Owingeh
  • This tells us who Po'Pay was - a leader from a specific place
  • We get additional detail that Ohkay Owingeh is a pueblo located about twenty-five miles north of present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico

Now the second sentence begins:

• "He was instrumental in organizing the Pueblo Revolt of ____"

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

• All include "1680" (the year)
• What varies is what comes after: nothing, "and", a comma, or "comma and"

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

The sentence continues:

• "as a result of his leadership, the Spanish colonizers were expelled from the region for a time"

Now let's understand what the complete sentence is telling us:

• First part: "He was instrumental in organizing the Pueblo Revolt of 1680"
  • This tells us what Po'Pay did - he organized this revolt in 1680

• Second part: "as a result of his leadership, the Spanish colonizers were expelled from the region for a time"
  • This tells us what happened because of his leadership
  • The Spanish colonizers were forced to leave
  • "As a result of his leadership" explains the connection between the two events

What do we notice about the structure here?

• "He was instrumental in organizing the Pueblo Revolt of 1680"
  • This is a complete thought - it could stand alone as a sentence
  • Subject: He
  • Verb: was

• "As a result of his leadership, the Spanish colonizers were expelled from the region for a time"
  • This is also a complete thought - it could stand alone too
  • Subject: the Spanish colonizers
  • Verb: were expelled
  • "As a result of his leadership" is an introductory phrase setting up the main part

So we have two complete thoughts that need to be connected properly.

When we connect two complete thoughts, we need a comma plus a connecting word like "and."

The correct answer is D: "1680, and"

This gives us: "He was instrumental in organizing the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and as a result of his leadership, the Spanish colonizers were expelled from the region for a time."

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Connecting Two Complete Thoughts

When you have two complete thoughts (called independent clauses in grammar terms) that you want to join into one sentence, you need to use a comma plus a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so).

The pattern looks like this:

Complete thought + , + and/but/or + complete thought

Examples:

Example 1:

• Complete thought #1: "The experiment produced unexpected results"
• Complete thought #2: "The researchers decided to repeat it"
• Connected properly: "The experiment produced unexpected results, and the researchers decided to repeat it."

Example 2:

• Complete thought #1: "The company wanted to expand internationally"
• Complete thought #2: "They lacked the necessary funding"
• Connected properly: "The company wanted to expand internationally, but they lacked the necessary funding."

In our question:

• Complete thought #1: "He was instrumental in organizing the Pueblo Revolt of 1680"
• Complete thought #2: "as a result of his leadership, the Spanish colonizers were expelled from the region for a time"
• Connected properly: "He was instrumental in organizing the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and as a result of his leadership, the Spanish colonizers were expelled from the region for a time."

Both the comma AND the conjunction are required - you can't have one without the other when connecting two complete thoughts.