In 1966, Emmett Ashford became the ﬁrst African American to umpire a Major League Baseball game. His energetic
gestures announcing when a player had struck out and his habit of barreling after a hit ball to see if it would land out of
______ transform the traditionally solemn umpire role into a dynamic one.
bounds helped
bounds, helping
bounds that helped
bounds to help
Choice A is the best answer. The convention being tested is ﬁnite verb use in a main clause. A main clause requires a ﬁnite
verb to perform the action of the subject (in this case, Ashford’s “gestures” and “habit”), and this choice supplies the ﬁnite
past tense verb “helped” to indicate what Ashford’s gestures and habit helped accomplish.
Choice B is incorrect because the non-ﬁnite participle “helping” doesn’t supply the main clause with a ﬁnite verb. Choice C is
incorrect because the relative clause “that helped” doesn’t supply the main clause with a ﬁnite verb. Choice D is incorrect
because the non-ﬁnite to-inﬁnitive “to help” doesn’t supply the main clause with a ﬁnite verb.