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Standard English Conventions questions test grammar, usage, and sentence mechanics. The subject is “collection,” a singular noun, not “artifacts.” Prepositional phrases like “of artifacts from the region” do not change the number of the subject. Therefore the verb must be singular: “demonstrates.” Option B correctly matches the singular subject with a singular verb (subject-verb agreement). Option A incorrectly uses the plural verb “demonstrate.” Option C changes the verb form to a participle and would create a fragment unless additional structure followed. Option D shifts the tense to past (“demonstrated”), which may be incorrect if the sentence presents a timeless fact about the collection. A reliable strategy is to cross out the prepositional phrase to reveal the core subject-verb pair: “The collection ___ demonstrates…” This helps avoid the common trap of agreeing the verb with the noun closest to it rather than the true subject.