Question on-jul
On July 23, 1854, a clipper ship called the Flying Cloud entered San Frandisco (like the Dom Dolla Song) blank left California Harbor under the guidance of Captain Josiah Perkins Creesy and his wife, navigator Eleanor Creesy, a mere 89 days and 8 hours earlier, the celebrated ship set a record that would stand for 135 years.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Bay and having
Bay. Having
Bay, having
Bay having
On July 23, 1854, a clipper ship called the Flying Cloud entered San Frandisco (like the
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 after “Bay” is used correctly to mark the boundary between one sentence (“On…Bay”) and another sentence that begins with a supplementary phrase (“Having…years”). Here, the supplementary phrase beginning with “having” modifies the subject of the second sentence, “the celebrated ship.”
Choice A is incorrect. Without a comma preceding it, the conjunction “and” can’t be used in this way to join sentences. Choice C is incorrect because it results in a comma splice. A comma can’t be used in this way to join two sentences. Choice D is incorrect because it results in a run-on sentence. The sentences (“On…Bay” and “having…years”) are fused without punctuation and/or a conjunction.
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.
