In many of her landscape paintings from the 1970s and 1980s, Lebanese American artist Etel Adnan worked to capture the
essence of California’s fog-shrouded Mount Tamalpais region through abstraction, using splotches of color to represent the
area’s features. Interestingly, the triangle representing the mountain itself ______ among the few deﬁned ﬁgures in her
paintings.
are
have been
were
is
Choice D is the best answer. The convention being tested is subject–verb agreement. The singular verb “is” agrees in
number with the singular subject “the triangle.”
Choice A is incorrect because the plural verb “are” doesn’t agree in number with the singular subject “the triangle.” Choice B
is incorrect because the plural verb “have been” doesn’t agree in number with the singular subject “the triangle.” Choice C is
incorrect because the plural verb “were” doesn’t agree in number with the singular subject “the triangle.”