The collection of Renaissance paintings at the Uffizi Gallery _____ works by Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo, making it...

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 collection
• of Renaissance paintings
• at the Uffizi Gallery
• [?] works by Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo,
• making it one of the most important art museums in the world.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning:

The sentence is about:

• 'The collection of Renaissance paintings at the Uffizi Gallery'
  • We're talking about a specific collection
  • It's a collection of Renaissance paintings
  • This collection is located at the Uffizi Gallery

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

• 'The collection _____ works by Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo'

Let's look at our choices:

1. include (plural)
2. are including (plural, progressive)
3. have included (plural, present perfect)
4. includes (singular, present)

What do we need here?

• The subject of the sentence is 'The collection' - that's singular
• 'of Renaissance paintings' is just a phrase that describes which collection
  • It tells us what kind of collection, but it doesn't change the subject
• 'at the Uffizi Gallery' also just describes where the collection is
• So our verb needs to match 'collection' (singular)

We need includes - the singular form.

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

• 'making it one of the most important art museums in the world'
  • This tells us the result or significance
  • Because the collection includes these important works, the museum is considered very important

The complete meaning: The Uffizi Gallery has a collection that includes works by these famous Renaissance artists, which makes it one of the world's most important art museums.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Subject-Verb Agreement with Intervening Phrases

The verb in a sentence must agree in number with its subject (singular subject = singular verb, plural subject = plural verb). When phrases appear between the subject and verb, the verb still matches the actual subject, not nouns within those phrases.

Pattern:

• Subject (singular) + describing phrases + verb (singular) + rest of sentence
• Subject (plural) + describing phrases + verb (plural) + rest of sentence

Example 1:

• "The box of chocolates is on the table."
  • Subject: "box" (singular)
  • Describing phrase: "of chocolates" (chocolates is NOT the subject)
  • Verb: "is" (singular, matching "box")

Example 2:

• "The students in the classroom are studying."
  • Subject: "students" (plural)
  • Describing phrase: "in the classroom"
  • Verb: "are" (plural, matching "students")

In our question:

• Subject: "The collection" (singular)
• Describing phrases: "of Renaissance paintings at the Uffizi Gallery"
• Verb needed: "includes" (singular, matching "collection")

The key is to identify the true subject and not be distracted by plural nouns (like "paintings") that appear in phrases between the subject and verb.