Question 113·Medium·Boundaries
Jocelyn Bell Burnell's meticulous analysis of radio-telescope data led to the discovery of _____ her senior colleagues a Nobel Prize even though she herself was excluded from the award.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For punctuation and sentence-boundary questions, first identify the main clause and check whether the words after the punctuation form a complete sentence. Remember: semicolons and periods require full sentences on both sides; commas can link a main clause to dependent elements such as -ing (participial) phrases. When you see an -ing phrase at the end of a sentence that explains or results from the earlier action, you almost always need a comma, not a semicolon or period and not nothing at all.
Hints
Check if the part after the blank is a full sentence
Ask yourself: Could 'earning her senior colleagues a Nobel Prize even though she herself was excluded from the award' be a complete sentence by itself, with its own subject and main verb?
Think about what semicolons and periods require
Remember that both a semicolon and a period must be followed by a complete sentence (independent clause). Consider whether that condition is met after the blank.
Look at how the -ing phrase relates to the main clause
The word earning begins a phrase that explains the result of the discovery. How is such an -ing phrase usually punctuated when it comes at the end of a sentence and refers back to the whole action before it?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the structure of the sentence
First, read the sentence around the blank: Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s meticulous analysis of radio-telescope data led to the discovery of pulsars in 1967 ______ earning her senior colleagues a Nobel Prize even though she herself was excluded from the award. The main clause is complete up to 1967; the words starting with earning explain the result of that discovery.
Recognize what kind of phrase 'earning her senior colleagues...' is
The phrase beginning with earning is an -ing (participial) phrase. It does not have its own subject and cannot stand alone as a complete sentence; instead, it modifies or adds information about the action in the main clause.
Review what punctuation marks can connect here
Semicolons and periods must be followed by a full, standalone sentence (an independent clause). Because earning her senior colleagues a Nobel Prize... is just a phrase, any option that uses a semicolon or a period before earning would incorrectly make that phrase look like a separate sentence, creating a fragment. To attach this participial phrase smoothly to the main clause, we need punctuation that keeps it within the same sentence.
Decide between comma and no punctuation
When an -ing phrase at the end of a sentence comments on or gives the result of the entire preceding clause, standard English convention is to set it off with a comma (for example: She finished her homework, earning high marks.). Without a comma, the sentence becomes awkward and suggests that pulsars themselves are earning the prize. Therefore, the choice that correctly completes the sentence is D: pulsars in 1967, earning.