The Harlem Renaissance produced many celebrated writers, but some partnerships remain underappreciated. Poets Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps collab...

Sentence Structure

Sentence 1:

• The Harlem Renaissance produced many celebrated writers,
• but some partnerships remain underappreciated.

Sentence 2:

• Poets Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps
  • collaborated on multiple children's books
    • in the 1930s and 1940s.

Sentence 3:

• [?] works
  • brought African American folklore and history
    • to young readers across the country.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning and understand what this passage is telling us.

The first sentence sets up the context:

• 'The Harlem Renaissance produced many celebrated writers'
  • This famous cultural movement created lots of well-known writers
• 'but some partnerships remain underappreciated'
  • However, some collaborative relationships between writers haven't gotten enough recognition

The second sentence gives us a specific example:

• 'Poets Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps'
  • We're introduced to TWO specific poets
• 'collaborated on multiple children's books in the 1930s and 1940s'
  • These two worked together on several children's books

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank: '_____ works brought African American folklore and history to young readers across the country.'

Let's look at our choices. They're asking us to decide between:

• Possessive words (its/their) vs. contractions (it's/they're)
• Singular (its/it's) vs. plural (their/they're)

What do we need here?

• The sentence is talking about works - but whose works?
• Looking back, these must be the works of Hughes and Bontemps - the two poets we just learned about
• So we need a possessive word that refers to BOTH of them

Since we're referring to two people (Hughes AND Bontemps):

• We need the plural possessive pronoun: Their

So the complete meaning is:

• The works belonging to Hughes and Bontemps brought African American folklore and history to young readers across the country.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We need a word that shows possession and refers back to the two poets
• The word "their" is a plural possessive pronoun
• It correctly matches the two-person reference (Hughes and Bontemps)

The correct answer is Their (Choice B).

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Pronoun Agreement: Making Sure Pronouns Match What They Refer To

When you use a pronoun (a word that stands in for a noun), it must match in number with its antecedent (called the antecedent in grammar terms) - the noun it's referring back to:

If the antecedent is singular, use a singular pronoun:

• "The poet published his collection"
• "his" refers back to one poet (singular)

If the antecedent is plural (two or more), use a plural pronoun:

• "The poets published their collection"
• "their" refers back to multiple poets (plural)

In this question:

• Antecedent: "Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps" (two people = plural)
• Pronoun needed: "Their" (plural possessive)
• This shows that the works belong to both poets together

Also remember:

• Possessive pronouns (their, its) show ownership and have NO apostrophe
• Contractions (they're = they are, it's = it is) have apostrophes and act as verb phrases