Question

Form a suitable noun clause with the help of the words in the bracket:
Chris Hipkins (Minister of Education) hails from a place called Hutt Valley in the Wellington Region.

• A. Chris Hipkins, the recent Minister of Education, hails from a place called Hutt Valley in the Wellington Region.
• B. Chris Hipkins, who recently became the Minister of Education, hails from a place called Hutt Valley in the Wellington Region.
• C. Chris Hipkins became the Minister of Education and he hails from a place called Hutt Valley in the Wellington Region.
• D. Chris Hipkins, becoming the Minister of Education, hails from a place called Hutt Valley in the Wellington Region.

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

Chris Hipkins, who recently became the Minister of Education, hails from a place called Hutt Valley in the Wellington Region.

A noun clause is a dependent clause that functions as a noun. It usually begins with what, whatever, whom, that and other such relative pronouns. A noun clause can act as a subject, object, predicate nominative or object of a preposition, in a sentence.
When a noun or its equivalent is in apposition to another noun/its equivalent, its sole purpose is to provide extra information about that noun/equivalent.
The question requires a noun clause to be made out of: Minister of Education. This can be seen in option B: "who recently became the Minister of Education" is a noun clause; it begins with a relative pronoun "who" that also functions as the subject, the verb "became". Hence option B is correct.
Option A is incorrect because "the recent minister of Education" is not a noun clause, it is a noun phrase.
Option C is incorrect because "became the Minister of Education" is not a noun clause, it functions as a predicate (a predicate can't be a noun clause because it contains the main verb, the noun clause does not include the main verb).
Option D is incorrect because "becoming the Minister of Education" is not a noun clause, it is a noun phrase.