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Standard English Conventions Difficulty: Hard

The present-day city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, was for years the capital of the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, one of many nominally autonomous republics within the Soviet Union. Like blank peer autonomous Soviet socialist republics, the Tajik Republic was established along ethnolinguistic lines: most of the republic’s residents spoke Persian.

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

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Explanation

Choice C is the best answer. The convention being tested is the use of possessive determiners. The singular possessive determiner "its" agrees in number with the singular subject "the Tajik Republic" and thus indicates that the other republics were its peers.

Choice A is incorrect because the plural possessive determiner "their" doesn’t agree in number with the singular subject "the Tajik Republic." Choice B is incorrect because "they’re" is the contraction for "they are," not a possessive determiner. Choice D is incorrect because "it’s" is the contraction for "it is" or "it has," not a possessive determiner.