The African Games Co-production Market, one of over 180 annual international conferences supporting video game development, ________ the growth 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

• The African Games Co-production Market,
• one of over 180 annual international conferences
  • supporting video game development,
• [?] the growth of the African gaming industry
  • by helping start-up studios in Africa find partners.
• Where [?] = promote/are promoting/promotes/have promoted

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

The sentence starts with:

• 'The African Games Co-production Market'
  • This is a specific conference/event focused on video games in Africa
  • This is our subject - the thing the sentence is about

Then we get additional information:

• 'one of over 180 annual international conferences supporting video game development'
  • This tells us the Market is part of a larger group of conferences
  • There are over 180 such conferences worldwide
  • They all support video game development

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

• 'The African Games Co-production Market ______ the growth of the African gaming industry'

Let's look at our choices:

• We're deciding between different forms of the verb "promote"
• Some are singular (promotes), some are plural (promote, are promoting, have promoted)

What do we notice about our subject?

• "The African Games Co-production Market" is SINGULAR
  • It's one specific market/conference
  • Even though the descriptive phrase mentions "conferences" (plural), that word is just part of the description
  • The actual subject doing the action is "Market" - singular

So we need a singular verb: promotes

Now let's read the rest to see the complete picture:

• 'by helping start-up studios in Africa find partners'
  • This explains HOW the Market promotes growth
  • It connects new studios with partners they need

The complete meaning: This one specific conference/market promotes the growth of African gaming by helping new studios find partners.

The correct answer is C. promotes

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Subject-Verb Agreement with Intervening Phrases

When a descriptive phrase comes between the subject and verb, you need to identify the true subject and make sure your verb agrees with it - not with nouns that appear in the intervening phrase.

The Pattern:

• Subject (singular or plural)
• + Intervening descriptive phrase (may contain nouns of different number)
• + Verb (must agree with the actual subject, not nearby nouns)

Example 1:

• The leader of the resistance movements inspires hope.
• Subject: "leader" (singular)
• Intervening phrase: "of the resistance movements" (contains plural "movements")
• Verb: "inspires" (singular) - agrees with "leader," not "movements"

Example 2:

• The students in the classroom are studying.
• Subject: "students" (plural)
• Intervening phrase: "in the classroom" (contains singular "classroom")
• Verb: "are studying" (plural) - agrees with "students," not "classroom"

In this question:

• Subject: "The African Games Co-production Market" (singular)
• Intervening phrase: "one of over 180 annual international conferences supporting video game development" (contains plural "conferences")
• Verb needed: "promotes" (singular) - agrees with "Market," not "conferences"

The key strategy: Mentally cross out or bracket the descriptive phrase to see the core sentence structure: "The African Games Co-production Market promotes the growth..."