[Video] Q36: No change or portraying or portray or has portrayed

Explanation for Question 36 From the Writing Section on the Official Sat Practice Test 3

Looking at question number 36, it says yet some of the earliest known works 2 of art, including paintings and drawings, tens of thousands of years old Fallon caves, 3 while in Spain portray animals. And this is the subject verb agreement question, 4 right? Because we have different versions of the same verb and we're trying to 5 figure out, should we use the singular version portrays or the plural version? 6 So essentially what we're going to do here is we need to find the 7 subject. What is portraying the animals? 8 First thing we need to know is that your subject is not allowed to 9 be in an, a positive phrase. 10 And we noticed that we have in a positive phrase right here, 11 right? This is set off by commas. 12 So nothing in here is going to be our subject. 13 We should also know that your subject can not be in a prepositional phrase. 14 And we actually have a propositional phrase right here, 15 right, because of as a preposition. So that makes of art, 16 our propositional phrase. And that means that it's the works that our subject is 17 the earliest known works that portray the animals and works as plural, 18 which means that we can't choose, um, a, 19 um, we have to choose C. And the reason that, 20 um, we don't choose portray ING is because we is because we know that 21 it has to be just simple present. We wouldn't say some of the earliest 22 works portraying animals, because then we would need more information. 23 We would have to say, okay, what do those works? Portraying animals do. 24 And so portraying doesn't work for that reason and has, 25 has a singular. And again, those works are plural. 26 So has doesn't work because it's also singular leaving us with answer choices.