Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Question

In the workshops that produced Mughal miniature paintings, labor was minutely divided: one specialist sketched the composition in thin red outline, a second ____ the burnished gold leaf, and a third, working with a brush made from a few squirrel hairs, painted the faces.

Accepted Answer

A. applied. The colon introduces three parallel clauses, each with a subject and a finite past-tense verb: 'one specialist sketched,' 'a second applied,' 'a third ... painted.' Only 'applied' supplies a finite verb in the past tense required by 'sketched' and 'painted.' (B) 'applying' is a participle, not a finite verb, so 'a second applying the burnished gold leaf' has no predicate—the reader is tempted by it because the third item also contains a participial phrase ('working with a brush'), but that phrase is a modifier attached to a clause that does have a verb. (C) 'applies' is finite but shifts to the present tense, breaking the past-tense frame of the surrounding clauses. (D) 'to apply' is an infinitive, another nonfinite form that leaves the middle item without a predicate.

Answer

B. applying — "Applying" is a participle, not a finite verb, so the middle item is left with no predicate; the participial phrase "working with a brush" in the third item is only a modifier attached to a clause that does have a verb ("painted").

Answer

C. applies — "Applies" is finite, but it shifts to the present tense while "sketched" and "painted" are past — all three parallel clauses need the same tense.

Answer

D. to apply — "To apply" is an infinitive, a nonfinite form, so "a second to apply the burnished gold leaf" has no verb to match "sketched" and "painted."

Standard English Conventions practice question

Answer: A. applied

Why the other answers are wrong

More Standard English Conventions questions