Question 175·Easy·Boundaries
Residents of the coastal town were thrilled when the long-awaited boardwalk finally opened last _____ can now walk the entire length of the shoreline and enjoy new shops and restaurants.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For SAT punctuation and sentence-boundary questions, first decide whether each side of the blank is an independent clause (complete sentence). If both sides are complete, eliminate choices that use only a comma (comma splice) or no punctuation (run-on), and check that a period is followed by a capital letter. Often, the remaining correct option will be a semicolon or a properly formed period + capital, so testing each option in the sentence with these rules lets you answer quickly and accurately.
Hints
Check if each side of the blank is a complete sentence
Cover the blank and read the words before it, then the words after it. Ask yourself: does each part have a subject and a verb and make sense on its own?
Think about how to join two complete thoughts
If both sides of the blank are complete sentences, what types of punctuation (or punctuation + word combinations) are allowed to connect them in Standard English?
Look closely at both punctuation and capitalization
For each answer, notice not only the punctuation mark but also whether the word after that mark is correctly capitalized for how the sentence is structured.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the clauses on each side of the blank
Read the part of the sentence before the blank:
- "Residents of the coastal town were thrilled when the long-awaited boardwalk finally opened last month" — this has a subject ("Residents") and a verb phrase ("were thrilled"), and it expresses a complete thought.
Now read the part after the blank:
- "visitors can now walk the entire length of the shoreline and enjoy new shops and restaurants" — this has a subject ("visitors") and a verb ("can walk" / "can enjoy") and also expresses a complete thought.
So you are connecting two independent clauses (two complete sentences).
Recall the punctuation rules for two independent clauses
When you have two independent clauses, you can:
- Use a period and start a new sentence (with a capital letter on the next word).
- Use a semicolon between them.
- Use a comma plus a conjunction (like "and," "but," "so").
You cannot:
- Use just a comma between them (that would be a comma splice).
- Use no punctuation at all (that would be a run-on sentence).
Test each answer choice against those rules
Plug each option into the sentence and check:
- Choice B: "last month visitors can now..." has no punctuation between two sentences — this creates a run-on.
- Choice C: "last month, visitors can now..." puts only a comma between two full sentences, and there is no conjunction — this is a comma splice.
- Choice D: "last month. visitors can now..." uses a period but then keeps "visitors" lowercase, which is incorrect, because the word after a period should be capitalized when starting a new sentence.
That leaves the option that correctly separates the independent clauses with appropriate punctuation and keeps capitalization correct.
Select the punctuation that correctly joins the clauses
A semicolon correctly joins two related independent clauses in a single sentence without needing a conjunction, and it keeps the second clause starting with a lowercase word (because the sentence continues):
- "...opened last month; visitors can now walk the entire length..."
So, the correct answer is "month; visitors".