Question Bank / Reading and Writing / Boundaries
Boundaries SAT question
Reading and Writing · Standard English Conventions · Hard · Answer it here, explanation included.
Researchers studying magnetosensation have determined why some soil-dwelling roundworms in the Southern Hemisphere move in the opposite direction of Earth’s magnetic field when searching for blank in the Northern Hemisphere, the magnetic field points down, into the ground, but in the Southern Hemisphere, it points up, toward the surface and away from worms’ food sources.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
ExplanationShow
Choice A is the best answer. The convention being tested is colon use within a sentence. A colon used in this way introduces information that illustrates or explains information that has come before it. In this case, the colon introduces the following explanation of why some roundworms in the Southern Hemisphere move in the opposite direction of Earth’s magnetic field.
Choice B is incorrect because it results in a comma splice. A comma can’t be used in this way to join two long independent clauses (“Researchers…food” and “in…sources”) such as these. Choice C is incorrect because it results in a run-on sentence. The two clauses (“Researchers…food” and “in…sources”) are fused without punctuation. Furthermore, the conjunction “while” fails to indicate that what follows is an explanation of why some roundworms in the Southern Hemisphere move in the opposite direction of Earth’s magnetic field. Choice D is incorrect because it results in a run-on sentence. The two clauses (“Researchers…food” and “in…sources”) are fused without punctuation and/or a conjunction.
Drill this skill on Aceit
Adaptive practice, a daily plan, and score tracking take a free account so we can save your work.
More Boundaries questions
- Generations of mystery and horror ______ have been influenced by the dark, gothic stories of celebrated American author Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849).
- The Mission 66 initiative, which was approved by Congress in 1956, represented a major investment in the infrastructure of overburdened national ______ it prioritized physical impr
- A recent study tracked the number of bee species present in twenty-seven New York apple orchards over a ten-year period. ______ found that when wild growth near an orchard was clea
- A study led by scientist Rebecca Kirby at the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that black bears that eat human food before hibernation have increased levels of a rare carbon i
- The haiku-like poems of Tomas Tranströmer, which present nature- and dream-influenced images in crisp, spare language, have earned the Swedish poet praise from leading contemporary
- While one requires oxygen and one does ______ and anaerobic respiration are both forms of cellular respiration—that is, they are processes by which cells break down glucose to use