The Community Arts Initiative launched several programs in 2018 to increase access to creative education in underserved neighborhoods. The workshops...

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 Community Arts Initiative launched several programs in 2018
  • to increase access to creative education
    • in underserved neighborhoods.

• The workshops and mentorship sessions [were/was/has been/are] (?) particularly effective
  • in engaging young artists,
    • many of whom have continued their creative pursuits professionally.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start with the first sentence to get our context:

• "The Community Arts Initiative launched several programs in 2018"
  • This organization started programs at a specific time in the past
  • The purpose was "to increase access to creative education in underserved neighborhoods"

Now the second sentence tells us about how those programs worked out:

• "The workshops and mentorship sessions..."
  • These are the specific programs being discussed
  • Notice we have TWO things here: workshops AND mentorship sessions

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at our choices:

• Choice A: was
• Choice B: has been
• Choice C: were
• Choice D: are

So we're choosing the right form of the verb "to be." To see what works here, let's think about what we know and then read the rest!

What do we notice about the subject?

• "The workshops and mentorship sessions" is our subject
  • We have two plural things: workshops (plural) and mentorship sessions (plural)
  • They're joined by "and"
  • When you connect two things with "and," you're talking about BOTH of them together
  • So we need a PLURAL verb

This means we need "were" or "are" (the plural options), not "was" or "has been" (singular forms).

Now, which tense do we need? Let's look at our context:

• The first sentence tells us the Initiative "launched" these programs "in 2018"
  • "Launched" is past tense
  • "In 2018" is a specific time in the past

• So we're talking about how these programs performed back then, in the past
  • We need past tense: "were"

The correct answer is Choice C: were

The rest of the sentence confirms this makes sense:

• "...were particularly effective in engaging young artists"
  • The programs were successful at engaging artists
• "many of whom have continued their creative pursuits professionally"
  • And the results have lasted - those artists are still pursuing their work now

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Subject-Verb Agreement with Compound Subjects and Tense Consistency

When you have two subjects joined by "and," they work together as a plural subject, and your verb must be plural to match:

Example 1: Compound subject

• Single: "The workshop was effective"
• Compound: "The workshop and the mentorship session were effective"
• "workshop and session" = plural subject
• "were" = plural verb form

Example 2: Tense consistency

• When context establishes a time frame, your verbs should match
• "The Initiative launched programs in 2018" → past tense
• "The workshops were effective" → past tense to match
• NOT: "The workshops are effective" → present tense doesn't match the past context

In our question:

• Subject: "The workshops and mentorship sessions" (two things joined by "and" = plural)
• Context: "launched...in 2018" (past tense established)
• Correct verb: "were" (plural + past tense)