Question 155·Medium·Boundaries
After two years of planning, Sydney-based artist Caitlin Reilly unveiled her latest mural, _____ a 40-meter-long seascape inspired by early Polynesian navigation techniques.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For punctuation/boundary questions, first strip out the phrase around the blank and see if the remaining sentence is a complete, clear idea; this shows you whether the missing part is extra (nonessential) information. If it is, remember it should usually be enclosed by commas or dashes on both sides, not attached with a semicolon. Then check each choice by reading the full sentence in your head, eliminating options that create sentence fragments, comma splices, or awkward, unclear combinations of phrases.
Hints
Check the sentence without the middle phrase
Cover up the blank (and imagine the words that could go there are removed). Does the sentence still make sense and form a complete idea without that middle part?
Decide if the phrase is essential or extra
Think about "titled Voyage of Stars": is it necessary to understand what the mural is, or is it just extra detail added between "mural" and "a 40-meter-long seascape"?
Match the punctuation to the kind of phrase
If a phrase is extra, how is it usually separated from the rest of the sentence? Look at the punctuation before the blank and ask what kind of mark after the phrase would nicely mirror it and keep the sentence smooth and grammatical.
Step-by-step Explanation
Find the core structure of the sentence
Temporarily ignore the words that will go in the blank and read the sentence:
"After two years of planning, Sydney-based artist Caitlin Reilly unveiled her latest mural, a 40-meter-long seascape inspired by early Polynesian navigation techniques."
This version is complete and makes sense. That tells you that "a 40-meter-long seascape..." is an appositive phrase renaming or describing "her latest mural."
Identify the role of the inserted phrase
Now add back the missing words in your mind: the phrase "titled Voyage of Stars" is extra information about the mural. The sentence structure is:
- main noun: mural
- extra description: titled Voyage of Stars
- appositive renaming the mural: a 40-meter-long seascape...
Because "titled Voyage of Stars" is nonessential (the sentence works without it), it should be set off by punctuation on both sides—before and after the phrase.
Match the punctuation to the grammar and choose the answer
There is already a comma before the blank (after "mural,"), so the answer choice must provide punctuation after "titled Voyage of Stars" that correctly closes off this nonessential phrase and smoothly leads into "a 40-meter-long seascape...".
- We cannot use no punctuation because then the two descriptions would run together awkwardly.
- We cannot use a semicolon because the words after the blank are not a full independent clause.
- We should not switch to an em dash here because the sentence is already using a comma to introduce this middle phrase, and a lone dash at the end would be inconsistent and too strong.
The only option that properly encloses the nonessential phrase with matching punctuation and keeps the sentence grammatically correct is C) titled Voyage of Stars,.