The archaeological museum in Athens houses artifacts from numerous ancient civilizations. One particular exhibit, the Minoan collection, _____ both ev...

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 archaeological museum in Athens
  • houses artifacts
    • from numerous ancient civilizations.
• One particular exhibit,
  • the Minoan collection,
  • [? to contain / contains / containing / having contained] both everyday pottery
    • from common households
    • and elaborate ceremonial objects
      • from royal palaces.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning:

The first sentence gives us context:

• 'The archaeological museum in Athens houses artifacts from numerous ancient civilizations.'
  • This is setting the scene - we're talking about a museum with ancient artifacts.

Now the second sentence focuses on something more specific:

• 'One particular exhibit, the Minoan collection...'
  • We're zooming in on one specific exhibit
  • 'the Minoan collection' is telling us which exhibit we're talking about

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• to contain
• contains
• containing
• having contained

The choices are showing us different verb forms. To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The sentence continues:

• '_____ both everyday pottery from common households and elaborate ceremonial objects from royal palaces.'
  • This is describing what the exhibit has in it
  • It includes both regular pottery from normal homes AND fancy ceremonial items from palaces

So the complete picture is:

• We have a specific exhibit (the Minoan collection)
• The sentence is telling us what this exhibit has in it

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The subject of this sentence is 'One particular exhibit'
  • 'the Minoan collection' is just giving us more detail about which exhibit - it's extra information set off by commas
  • The true subject is 'One particular exhibit' (singular)
• This sentence needs a main verb - the action that tells us what the exhibit does
  • The sentence is fundamentally about what the exhibit contains
• Looking at our choices:
  • 'to contain' - this is an infinitive form (to + verb) - it can't work as the main verb on its own
  • 'containing' - this is an -ing form that needs a helping verb like 'is' - can't stand alone as the main verb
  • 'having contained' - this is also a form that can't work as the main verb by itself
  • 'contains' - this is a complete verb form that can serve as the main verb
• Plus, 'contains' agrees with our singular subject 'One particular exhibit'

So we need contains - it's the only form that works as a main verb and agrees with the singular subject.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Main Verbs vs. Other Verb Forms

Every complete sentence needs a main verb - a verb form that can stand on its own to express the primary action or state. Not all verb forms can serve as main verbs:

Forms that CAN work as main verbs:

• Present tense: contains, houses, includes
• Past tense: contained, housed, included
• (These are called finite verbs in grammar terms)

Forms that CANNOT work as main verbs alone:

• Infinitives: to contain, to house, to include
• Present participles: containing, housing, including
• Perfect participles: having contained, having housed, having included
• (These are called non-finite verbs in grammar terms)

In this question:

• Subject: "One particular exhibit" (singular)
• Note: "the Minoan collection" is just extra information set off by commas
• Needed: A main verb that agrees with this singular subject
• Answer: contains - present tense, third person singular form

The pattern to remember:

When filling in a verb, ask yourself:

1. Can this verb form serve as the main verb of the sentence?
2. Does it agree with the subject in number (singular/plural)?

If you see forms like "to ___," "___ing," or "having ___ed" standing alone where a main verb should be, they'll create sentence fragments.