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ACT English 1.7 Passage Drill 208 Views


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ACT English: Passage Drill 1, Problem 7. Which punctuation best fits before this list?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Exocarp: the X-man whose mutant power

00:10

is exuding the fishy smell of carp.

00:27

How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?

00:31

layers the

00:32

And here are the potential answers:

00:38

Our sensors are detecting one nasty run-on sentence.

00:41

Without the proper punctuation, this sentence is a monstrous mush of words that's close

00:45

to incomprehensible.

00:46

Our original sentence ends with a list, which describes the three layers of the coconut.

00:51

Without the proper punctuation to introduce this list, we've got a serious case of run-on pandemonium.

00:57

Therefore, we can nix choice (A), since it doesn't use any punctuation whatsoever.

01:01

Choice (C) makes an effort at punctuating by sliding a comma in between the list and

01:05

the earlier part of the sentence.

01:06

Unfortunately, a measly little comma isn't enough to stop this run-on.

01:10

We can get rid of choice (C).

01:11

(D) tries using a semicolon, but this doesn't work either.

01:14

Semicolons are great when we want to connect two independent clauses, but they're totally

01:18

useless when we're trying to introduce a list.

01:19

The answer is (B), which correctly uses a colon to prepare us for the list to come.

01:25

Besides introducing lists, colons are good at introducing quotes and explanations.

01:29

They're also good at introducing us when we're feeling awkward at a party...

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