Wanting to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Alaska Purchase, __________ up with a motto that best captured the state's...

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

Sentence 1:

• Wanting to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Alaska Purchase,
• [WHAT/WHO?] up with a motto that best captured the state's unique character.

Sentence 2:

• The commission selected 'North to the Future,' submitted by Juneau journalist Richard Peter, as its winning entry.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

'Wanting to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Alaska Purchase...'

This opening phrase is describing someone who wants to celebrate - it's telling us the motivation or reason for what comes next.

Now here's where we have the blank. Let's look at our choices to see what we're deciding:

• Choice A starts with: "a contest...would award"
• Choice B starts with: "an award...would go"
• Choice C starts with: "$300 would be awarded"
• Choice D starts with: "the Alaska Centennial Commission sponsored"

So we're deciding WHAT or WHO comes right after that opening phrase.

To see what works here, let's continue reading to understand the complete picture. The blank leads to:

'______ up with a motto that best captured the state's unique character.'

Then the second sentence tells us:

'The commission selected 'North to the Future,' submitted by Juneau journalist Richard Peter, as its winning entry.'

Now let's piece together what's happening:

• Someone wanted to celebrate Alaska's 100th anniversary
• So they did something related to coming up with a motto
• A commission selected a winning entry

What do we notice about the structure here?

When a sentence starts with a descriptive phrase like "Wanting to celebrate," that phrase is describing whoever or whatever comes immediately after the comma.

Think about it this way:

• "Wanting to celebrate" describes someone who has this desire
• So the subject right after the comma must be someone or something that CAN want to celebrate
• Must be capable of having intentions and desires

Let's check each option:

• Can "a contest" want to celebrate? No - a contest is just an event
• Can "an award" want to celebrate? No - an award is just a prize
• Can "$300" want to celebrate? No - money can't want anything
• Can "the Alaska Centennial Commission" want to celebrate? YES - a commission is a group of people who can have goals and desires!

So we need Choice D: "the Alaska Centennial Commission sponsored a contest that would award $300 to an individual who came"

This makes logical sense: The Commission wanted to celebrate the anniversary, so they sponsored a contest to find a motto, and then they selected the winner.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Introductory Describing Phrases: Matching Logic

When you start a sentence with a describing phrase (called a participial phrase in grammar terms), especially one with an -ing verb, that phrase must logically describe whoever or whatever comes immediately after the comma.

The Pattern:

• Describing phrase: Running late for the meeting,
• Must describe: Sarah grabbed her keys and rushed out
• Sarah is doing the running late tick mark

• Describing phrase: Running late for the meeting,
• Doesn't work with: the keys were grabbed by Sarah
• Keys can't be running late cross

In this question:

• Describing phrase: "Wanting to celebrate the 100th anniversary..."
• Must describe: an entity capable of wanting/having desires
• Only works with: "the Alaska Centennial Commission"
• A commission (group of people) can want things tick mark
• Doesn't work with: "a contest," "an award," or "$300"
• These inanimate objects cannot want anything cross

The key is to ask: Can the subject logically do what the opening phrase describes? In this case, only the Commission can logically "want to celebrate."