Wyoming's pioneering decision to grant women voting rights in 1869 marked a turning point for the American suffrage movement. This...

Sentence Structure

• Wyoming's pioneering decision to grant women voting rights in 1869 marked a turning point for the American suffrage movement.
• This territorial legislation demonstrated that women's political participation could succeed in practice, and by 1920, Tennessee suffragists [?] the final ratification needed to make the Nineteenth Amendment constitutional law.
  
  Where [?] = will secure / secure / are securing / secured

Understanding the Meaning

• Let's start from the beginning:
  • The first sentence tells us:
    • Wyoming made a pioneering decision to grant women voting rights in 1869
    • This was a turning point for the American suffrage movement
• Now the second sentence:
  • This territorial legislation (Wyoming's decision) demonstrated something:
    • that women's political participation could succeed in practice
• The sentence continues with 'and' - adding another piece of information:
  • 'and by 1920, Tennessee suffragists...'
• This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:
  • will secure (future tense)
  • secure (present tense)
  • are securing (present progressive - happening now)
  • secured (past tense)
• To see what works here, let's read the rest and understand what it's saying!
  • 'Tennessee suffragists ______ the final ratification needed to make the Nineteenth Amendment constitutional law'
    • Tennessee suffragists did something with the final ratification
    • This ratification was needed to make the Nineteenth Amendment become law
• Now, what do we notice about the timing here?
  • We have the time marker 'by 1920'
    • This tells us when this action happened
    • 1920 is a specific date in the past
  • The entire passage is describing historical events:
    • Wyoming's decision in 1869 (past)
    • What this decision 'demonstrated' (past tense verb)
    • The Nineteenth Amendment ratification in 1920 (historical fact)
  • The verb 'demonstrated' earlier in the sentence is also in past tense
    • We're maintaining consistency in describing these past events
• So we need the past tense: secured.
  • Tennessee suffragists secured (completed the action of getting) the final ratification needed in 1920 - this is a completed historical event we're looking back on.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Matching Verb Tense to Time Markers and Context

When you're writing about events, the verb tense you choose needs to match the time frame you're describing. Time markers (words or phrases that tell you when something happened) are crucial clues:

Time marker pointing to the past → Use past tense:

• 'In 1869, Wyoming granted women voting rights' (not 'grants' or 'will grant')
• 'By 1920, suffragists had achieved their goal' (not 'achieve' or 'are achieving')

Historical narrative context → Maintain past tense consistently:

• 'The legislation demonstrated success, and by 1920, Tennessee secured ratification'
• Both verbs stay in past tense because we're describing historical events

In this question:

• Time marker: 'by 1920' (specific past date)
• Context: Historical narrative about events in 1869 and 1920
• Other verbs: 'marked' (past), 'demonstrated' (past), 'could succeed' (past modal)
• Therefore: We need 'secured' (past tense) to maintain consistency and accurately reflect that these are completed historical events

The technical term for this is 'verb tense consistency' - keeping your verbs in the appropriate tense based on when the actions occurred and maintaining that tense throughout related parts of your writing.