Question 176·Medium·Boundaries
As environmental activist Wangari Maathai once remarked, “It’s the little things citizens ______ a statement that underscores the power of individual actions in confronting global challenges such as deforestation and climate change.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For punctuation and boundaries questions, always read a few words before and after the blank to see how the parts of the sentence fit together. Decide whether the text after the blank is a complete sentence, a phrase, or something being added in apposition (a descriptive renaming). Then choose punctuation whose “strength” matches that relationship: use a period only to end a full sentence, a semicolon only between two independent clauses, and a comma to connect a main clause to a following phrase or appositive. When quotations are involved, also remember SAT follows standard American rules: commas and periods that belong to the sentence almost always go inside the closing quotation marks.
Hints
Check what comes after the blank
Look carefully at the words after the blank: “a statement that underscores the power of individual actions…”. Ask yourself: is this a complete sentence on its own, or is it a phrase describing the quoted remark?
Should the quotation end the sentence?
Decide whether the sentence should stop right after the quoted words, or whether it should continue into the description that follows. That will tell you whether strong end punctuation (like a period) makes sense.
Think about punctuation strength and quotation rules
Among period, comma, semicolon, or nothing, which kind of punctuation would appropriately connect a quotation to a following descriptive phrase in the same sentence? Remember that in American English, punctuation marks like commas and periods that relate to the whole sentence are usually placed inside the closing quotation mark.
Step-by-step Explanation
See the full sentence structure
Read the whole sentence around the blank:
As environmental activist Wangari Maathai once remarked, “It’s the little things citizens do ______ a statement that underscores the power of individual actions….”
The words after the blank — “a statement that underscores the power of individual actions …” — are describing the remark. They belong in the same sentence as the quotation; they are not a new, stand-alone sentence.
Decide what kind of punctuation is needed
Because the words after the quotation are just a descriptive noun phrase (a statement that underscores…), they cannot start a new sentence by themselves. So the punctuation at the blank must not fully end the sentence or act like a strong break between two complete sentences. Instead, we need punctuation that shows the quotation is followed by an explanatory phrase within the same sentence.
Apply rules for punctuation with quotation marks
A period or semicolon would either end the sentence or separate two independent clauses, but the phrase “a statement that underscores…” is not an independent clause, so those options are incorrect. We also need some punctuation to set off that descriptive phrase; leaving out punctuation makes the sentence run together.
That means we need a comma to keep everything in one sentence and to set off the descriptive phrase. In standard American English, that comma goes inside the closing quotation mark. So the sentence should read:
As environmental activist Wangari Maathai once remarked, “It’s the little things citizens do,” a statement that underscores the power of individual actions in confronting global challenges such as deforestation and climate change.
The choice that provides this is B) do,”.