The technology startup expanded rapidly after securing venture capital funding. The company opened its first international headquarters in _____ estab...

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 technology startup expanded rapidly after securing venture capital funding.
• The company opened its first international headquarters in Singapore (?)
  • establishing a workforce of over two hundred employees within the first year.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading:

The first sentence gives us background:

• 'The technology startup expanded rapidly after securing venture capital funding.'
  • A tech company got funding and grew quickly.

Now the second sentence tells us about a specific thing the company did:

• 'The company opened its first international headquarters in _____'

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

• A: Singapore and
• B: Singapore,
• C: Singapore, and
• D: Singapore

They differ in whether we have a comma and whether we have "and." To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The sentence continues:

• 'establishing a workforce of over two hundred employees within the first year.'

Now let's understand what this part is doing:

• 'Establishing a workforce...' is giving us additional information about what happened when they opened the headquarters.
  • It's describing something that occurred as part of or alongside the opening.
  • It's not stating a separate, independent action – it's adding descriptive detail to the main action (opening the headquarters).

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We have a complete statement:
  • "The company opened its first international headquarters in Singapore"
• Followed by added descriptive information:
  • "establishing a workforce of over two hundred employees..."
• This second part is not a complete thought that could stand alone
  • It's additional information that describes/expands on the main action
• When we add this type of descriptive information after a complete statement, we use a comma to separate it
  • We don't use "and" because we're not connecting two complete thoughts
  • We're just adding descriptive detail

So we need: Singapore, (Choice B)

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Commas with Descriptive Phrases That Add Information

When you have a main statement followed by a phrase that adds descriptive or supplementary information (called a participial phrase in grammar terms – a phrase starting with an -ing verb form), you need to separate them with a comma:

Pattern:

• Main complete statement + comma + descriptive phrase adding information

Example 1:

• The restaurant received excellent reviews, attracting customers from across the city.
  • Main statement: "The restaurant received excellent reviews"
  • Descriptive addition: "attracting customers from across the city"
  • The comma separates the main idea from the additional descriptive detail

Example 2:

• She finished the project ahead of schedule, earning praise from her supervisor.
  • Main statement: "She finished the project ahead of schedule"
  • Descriptive addition: "earning praise from her supervisor"

In our question:

• Main statement: "The company opened its first international headquarters in Singapore"
• Descriptive addition: "establishing a workforce of over two hundred employees within the first year"
• Comma needed to properly separate these elements

Key point: Don't use "and" in this situation – "and" is for connecting two complete thoughts of equal weight, not for adding descriptive information to a main statement.