Seven murals created by Diego Rivera between 1929 and 1935 are housed at the San Francisco Art Institute. _____ works...

Sentence Structure

• Sentence 1:
  • Seven murals
    • created by Diego Rivera between 1929 and 1935
  • are housed at the San Francisco Art Institute.
• Sentence 2:
  • [?] works
    • showcase Rivera's distinctive approach to social realism
      • and
    • his mastery of large-scale compositions.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start with the first sentence:

• 'Seven murals created by Diego Rivera between 1929 and 1935 are housed at the San Francisco Art Institute.'

This tells us:

• There are seven murals (a specific number - plural)
• They were created by Diego Rivera
• Created between 1929 and 1935
• They're located at the San Francisco Art Institute

Now the second sentence begins with our blank:

• '[?] works showcase Rivera's distinctive approach to social realism and his mastery of large-scale compositions.'

Let's look at our choices:

• Each, These, This, That

What do we notice?

• The second sentence is referring back to the seven murals from the first sentence
• "Works" is a plural noun (multiple items)
• We need a word that refers to the seven murals from sentence 1

Let's check what matches:

• "Each" = singular (talks about items one at a time)
• "These" = plural (refers to multiple things)
• "This" = singular (refers to one thing)
• "That" = singular (refers to one thing)

Since we're referring back to "seven murals" (plural), we need a plural word that can refer to multiple items.

The correct answer is These.

The meaning: These works (the seven murals we just learned about) showcase Rivera's distinctive style and his mastery of large compositions.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Matching Words That Refer Back (Demonstratives) with What They Point To

When you use a word that points back to something mentioned earlier (called a demonstrative in grammar terms - like "this," "that," "these," "those"), it must match in number with what it's referring to:

Pattern 1: Singular antecedent → singular demonstrative

• Original: "The museum acquired a painting by Frida Kahlo."
• Referring back: "This work represents her surrealist period."
• "This" (singular) correctly refers to "a painting" (singular)

Pattern 2: Plural antecedent → plural demonstrative

• Original: "The museum acquired three paintings by Frida Kahlo."
• Referring back: "These works represent her surrealist period."
• "These" (plural) correctly refers to "three paintings" (plural)

In our question:

• What's being referred to: "Seven murals" (plural)
• What we need: A plural demonstrative
• Correct choice: "These works"
• "These" (plural) correctly refers to "seven murals" (plural)

Common demonstratives:

• Singular: this, that
• Plural: these, those