The soundtrack to Mira Nair's 1991 film Mississippi Masala expressively captures the clashing of cultures that happens when _______ (a...

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 soundtrack to Mira Nair's 1991 film Mississippi Masala
  • expressively captures
    • the clashing of cultures
      • that happens
        • when [?] two [?]
          • (a young Indian woman from Uganda and a young African American man from Mississippi)
          • meet.
• Featured throughout the film
  • are songs
    • from Uganda's Afrigo Band,
    • the Indian composer L. Subramaniam,
    • and the Mississippi blues musician Sam Chatmon.

Where [?] represents what we need to decide:

• First [?]: 'it's' vs. 'its'
• Second [?]: 'protagonists' vs. 'protagonist's'

Understanding the Meaning

• The sentence begins by telling us what the soundtrack does:
  • 'The soundtrack to Mira Nair's 1991 film Mississippi Masala expressively captures the clashing of cultures'
    • The film's music captures how different cultures clash
• The sentence continues:
  • 'that happens when _____ two _____'
    • This is describing when these cultures clash
• Now here's where we need to fill in the blank.
• Let's look at our choices:
  • Choice A: it's two protagonists
  • Choice B: its two protagonist's
  • Choice C: it's two protagonist's
  • Choice D: its two protagonists
• So we're deciding two things:
  • 'it's' (with apostrophe) vs. 'its' (without apostrophe)
  • 'protagonists' vs. 'protagonist's' (with apostrophe)
• Let's think about what makes sense here. The sentence is saying:
  • 'when _____ two _____ meet'
• First decision: Do we need 'it's' or 'its'?
  • 'It's' is short for 'it is'
    • 'when it is two protagonists meet' - that doesn't work grammatically
  • 'Its' is the possessive form - like 'the film's'
    • 'when [the film's] two protagonists meet' - yes, that makes sense!
    • We're talking about the film's two main characters
• So we need 'its' (possessive, no apostrophe).
• Second decision: Do we need 'protagonists' or 'protagonist's'?
  • The parenthetical tells us who we're talking about:
    • '(a young Indian woman from Uganda and a young African American man from Mississippi)'
    • That's TWO people
  • 'Protagonists' is just the plural form - multiple protagonists
  • 'Protagonist's' would mean something belonging to a protagonist
    • Like 'the protagonist's story' or 'the protagonist's journey'
  • But here we just need the plural: 'two protagonists'
    • We're not showing that anything belongs to them
• So we need 'its two protagonists' - the correct answer is Choice D.
• Now let's read the rest to see the complete picture:
  • The sentence gives us those two people in parentheses:
    • a young Indian woman from Uganda
    • a young African American man from Mississippi
  • Then tells us: 'meet'
    • The cultural clashing happens when these two characters meet
• The second sentence adds detail about the music:
  • Songs featured in the film come from three sources:
    • Uganda's Afrigo Band
    • Indian composer L. Subramaniam
    • Mississippi blues musician Sam Chatmon
  • This musical variety reflects the cultural diversity in the story

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Distinguishing Possessives from Contractions and Plurals

This question tests two important distinctions:

1. Its vs. It's:

• Its (no apostrophe) = possessive pronoun meaning 'belonging to it'
  • Example: 'The film won acclaim for its innovative storytelling.'
  • In our sentence: 'its two protagonists' = the film's two protagonists
• It's (with apostrophe) = contraction of 'it is' or 'it has'
  • Example: 'It's a groundbreaking film.' (It is a groundbreaking film)
  • Test: Can you replace it with 'it is'? If not, use 'its'

2. Plural Nouns vs. Possessive Nouns:

• Protagonists (no apostrophe) = plural form, meaning multiple protagonists
  • Example: 'The novel has three protagonists who tell different parts of the story.'
  • In our sentence: 'two protagonists' = two main characters
• Protagonist's (with apostrophe before s) = possessive form, meaning something belongs to one protagonist
  • Example: 'The protagonist's decision changed everything.'
  • This shows ownership: the decision belongs to the protagonist

In this question:

• 'Its two protagonists' correctly uses the possessive 'its' (the film's) and the plural 'protagonists' (two main characters)
• No apostrophe in 'its' because it's a possessive pronoun (special case - possessive pronouns never use apostrophes)
• No apostrophe in 'protagonists' because we're just talking about multiple protagonists, not showing that anything belongs to them