Question 130·Easy·Boundaries
Thousands of wildlife and nature ______ travel to Yellowstone National Park each year to capture its stunning scenery.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For punctuation questions like this, first identify the complete subject and the main verb. Check if the blank falls between them; if it does, you almost never want punctuation there unless there is a clear interrupting phrase or clause. Then recall how each punctuation mark is normally used (comma for lists and minor breaks, dash for interruptions/emphasis, semicolon between independent clauses) and eliminate any choice that breaks basic subject–verb structure.
Hints
Locate the blank in the sentence
Look carefully at which words come immediately before and after the blank. What role do those words play in the sentence?
Find the subject and the verb
Identify the complete subject of the sentence and the main verb. Does the blank fall between these two parts?
Think about punctuation rules
Ask yourself: Is it correct to have a comma, dash, or semicolon between a subject and its verb when there is no extra phrase or clause in between?
Match function to punctuation
Remember how commas, dashes, and semicolons are normally used. Which option fits the grammar of this sentence, and which ones would break the subject and verb apart unnecessarily?
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the structure of the sentence
Read the whole sentence: "Thousands of wildlife and nature ______ travel to Yellowstone National Park each year to capture its stunning scenery." The main subject is "Thousands of wildlife and nature photographers," and the main verb is "travel." The blank is directly between the subject and the verb.
Recall the rule about punctuation between subject and verb
In standard English, you generally do not place punctuation between the complete subject and its verb when there is no interruption (like a clause or phrase) in between. So if the words before the blank form a full subject and the next word is the verb, you should not separate them with a comma, dash, or semicolon.
Test each punctuation choice
The options are the same word with different punctuation marks: comma, dash, semicolon, or nothing. A comma or dash here would wrongly interrupt the subject from its verb, and a semicolon is used to join independent clauses, not to attach a verb to its subject. The only acceptable choice is the one that leaves no punctuation between the subject and the verb.
Choose the answer that leaves subject and verb together
To keep the sentence grammatical—"Thousands of wildlife and nature photographers travel to Yellowstone National Park each year to capture its stunning scenery."—you must select D) photographers.