The Chrysler Building stands as one of New York City's most recognizable landmarks. With _____ distinctive Art Deco spire reaching...

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:

• The Chrysler Building
  • stands as one of New York City's most recognizable landmarks.

Sentence 2:

• With (?) distinctive Art Deco spire
  reaching 1,046 feet into the sky,
  • the skyscraper
    • dominated the Manhattan skyline
      when it was completed in 1930.

Where (?) = their / it's / they're / its

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

The first sentence tells us:

• The Chrysler Building stands as one of New York City's most recognizable landmarks.
  • We're talking about a specific building - the Chrysler Building
  • It's one of NYC's famous landmarks

Now the second sentence begins:

• "With _____ distinctive Art Deco spire reaching 1,046 feet into the sky"

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank. We're talking about a spire that belongs to something.

Let's look at our choices:

• We have "their" (plural possessive), "it's" (contraction for "it is"), "they're" (contraction for "they are"), and "its" (singular possessive)

What do we know so far?

• From the first sentence, we established we're talking about "The Chrysler Building" - that's singular, one building
• Now we're describing something that belongs to it: the spire
• Whose spire? The Chrysler Building's spire

So we need:

• A possessive form (to show the spire belongs to the building)
• A singular form (because "The Chrysler Building" is singular)
• That means we need its - the singular possessive pronoun

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

• "the skyscraper dominated the Manhattan skyline when it was completed in 1930"
  • "the skyscraper" is another way to refer to the Chrysler Building
  • It tells us historical information - it dominated the skyline in 1930

The complete meaning: The Chrysler Building, with its distinctive spire reaching over 1,000 feet high, was the dominant feature of Manhattan's skyline when it was built in 1930.

The correct answer is D. its

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Pronoun Agreement and Possessive Forms

When you use a pronoun to refer back to a noun, two things must be true:

1. The pronoun must match in number: If the noun is singular, use a singular pronoun. If it's plural, use a plural pronoun.
2. Use the right form for the job: If you're showing ownership or possession, you need the possessive form, not a contraction.

The tricky part with "its":

• its (no apostrophe) = possessive form, shows ownership
  • "The building and its spire"
  • "The cat licked its paws"
• it's (with apostrophe) = contraction meaning "it is" or "it has"
  • "It's raining" = "It is raining"
  • "It's been a long day" = "It has been a long day"

How this applies to our question:

• Antecedent: "The Chrysler Building" (singular)
• What we need: a word to show the spire belongs to the building
• Solution: "its" (singular possessive)
• The phrase "its distinctive Art Deco spire" = "the building's distinctive Art Deco spire"

Quick test: Try replacing "its/it's" with "it is." If the sentence doesn't make sense, you need "its" (possessive), not "it's" (contraction). "With it is distinctive spire" doesn't work → we need "its."