Question as-the
As the fourteenth US librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden has many responsibilities. These include overseeing the Library of Congress’s collections, which boast more than 162 million blank the US Copyright Office, which registers copyright claims and advises Congress on copyright law; and appointing the US poet laureate.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
items managing
items, managing
items; managing
items. Managing
As the fourteenth US librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden has many responsibilities. These include overseeing the
Hard-difficulty · SAT Reading & Writing · Boundaries — Semicolon vs period between independent clauses. Read the question above, select your answer, and check the full explanation below to understand exactly why the correct choice works.
Answer explanation
Choice C is the best answer. The convention being tested is the punctuation of elements in a complex series. It’s conventional to use a semicolon to separate items in a complex series with internal punctuation, and in this choice, the semicolon after "items" is conventionally used to separate the first item ("overseeing…items") and the second item ("managing…law") in a list of Hayden’s responsibilities.
Choice A is incorrect because it fails to use appropriate punctuation to separate the first item and the second item in the complex series. Choice B is incorrect because a comma after "items" doesn’t match the semicolon used later to separate the second and third items in the series ("managing…law" and "and appointing the US poet laureate"). Choice D is incorrect because it results in a rhetorically unacceptable sentence fragment beginning with "Managing."
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