Question consid
Consider the mechanics of the pinhole camera: light passes through a small hole, resulting in a focused projected image. A ray diagram reveals how this blank the hole’s small size restricts light to a single ray, all light passing through the hole can only arrive at a single destination, eliminating diffraction and ensuring a clear image.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
works because
works. Because
works, it’s because
works: it’s because
Consider the mechanics of the pinhole camera: light passes through a small hole, resulting in a
Hard-difficulty · SAT Reading & Writing · Boundaries — Fragments vs complete sentences. 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 punctuation use between sentences. In this choice, the period is used to correctly mark the boundary between one sentence ("A ray...works") and another ("Because...image").
Choice A is incorrect because it results in a run-on sentence. The two sentences ("A ray…works" and "Because…image") are fused without punctuation and/or a conjunction. Choice C is incorrect because it results in a comma splice. A comma can’t be used in this way to mark the boundary between sentences. Choice D is incorrect because it results in a comma splice. Since the contraction "it’s" creates a main clause, the comma after "single ray" can’t be used in this way to mark the boundary between two main clauses ("it’s...ray" and "all light…image").
More Boundaries practice questions
- Award-winning cinematographer James Wong Howe was known for his innovative filming
- Dr. Rocío Paola Caballero-Gill is a paleoceanographer. This means that Dr.
- Nigerian American artist Toyin Ojih Odutola uses black-ink pens to create highly detailed
- The city of Pompeii, which was buried in ash following the eruption of Mount
- Eli Eisenberg, a genetics expert at Tel Aviv University in Israel, recently discovered
- By the time Hawaiian king Kamehameha IIwe ______ blank the throne, the number of
- Why are Rome’s famous concrete structures, such as the Colosseum, still standing
- In 1637, the price of tulips skyrocketed in Amsterdam, with single bulbs of rare
Browse all Expression of Ideas practice questions or return to the full SAT question bank.