Question butter

3.1 Boundaries - Parenthetical punctuation: commas, dashes, parentheses
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Butterfly is a 1988 painting by the Japanese artist Ay-O. Like many of Ay-O’s paintings, Butterfly, which portrays a swimmer performing the butterfly stroke, attempts to make use of the entire visual light blank sporting rainbow-striped goggles, the rainbow-hued swimmer splashes through a wavy rainbow of water.

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

A.

spectrum

B.

spectrum:

C.

spectrum while

D.

spectrum, while

Butterfly is a 1988 painting by the Japanese artist Ay-O. Like many of Ay-O’s paintings, Butterfly

Hard-difficulty · SAT Reading & Writing · Boundaries — Parenthetical punctuation: commas, dashes, parentheses. Read the question above, select your answer, and check the full explanation below to understand exactly why the correct choice works.

Answer explanation

Choice B is the best answer. The convention being tested is the use of a colon within a sentence. In this choice, the colon correctly introduces the following description of how the painting makes use of the entire visual light spectrum by depicting a rainbow-hued swimmer.

Choice A is incorrect because it results in a run-on sentence. The main clauses ("Like…spectrum" and "sporting…water") are fused without punctuation and/or a conjunction. Choice C is incorrect because it results in a run-on sentence. The main clauses ("Like…spectrum" and "while…water") are fused without punctuation. Furthermore, the conjunction "while" fails to indie that what follows is a description of how the painting makes use of the entire visual light spectrum. Choice D is incorrect because it results in a logically confusing sentence. The conjunction "while," which suggests that what follows is occurring at the same time as or despite what came before, fails to indie that what follows is a description of how the painting makes use of the entire visual light spectrum.