SAT Reading & Writing · Boundaries
The town's oldest surviving building ______ a converted grain mill from the 1850s, now houses a small local history museum.
The town's oldest surviving building ______ a converted grain mill from the 1850s, now houses a small local history museum.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C: is
As written, the sentence needs a verb connecting its subject, "the town's oldest surviving building," to what follows. Supplying is completes that missing link, turning "a converted grain mill from the 1850s" into the sentence's predicate: the building is a mill. A comma alone would leave the sentence without any verb at all between subject and description, since "now houses" is a separate later verb serving a different clause. An em dash would face the same problem, offering a boundary mark instead of the actual missing verb. "And is" incorrectly adds a coordinating word with nothing appropriate to coordinate at this point in the sentence.
More Boundaries questions
- Question 22A marine biologist who had spent thirty years studying a single coral reef system ______ she had…
- Question 23The observatory's oldest telescope, ______ has been in continuous use since 1932, still produces…
- Question 48The committee's final report, ______ took nearly eighteen months to complete, recommended sweeping…
- Question 49The volunteers cleaned the park ______ tired but satisfied with their work.
- Question 71The archive's most fragile documents ______ handled only with cotton gloves and under controlled…
- Question 72The recipe requires three main ingredients ______ flour, butter, and sugar.
Learn the method behind questions like this one
The SAT Reading & Writing course teaches each tested skill through lessons, step-by-step solutions to sample problems, the complete study guide and full-length practice tests.