A joining question with choices that change only punctuation tests how the parts of a sentence connect. Split where the choices change, and test each side as a sentence. Check for a word that keeps a part from standing alone. Use a comma after an opening dependent clause, a semicolon between full sentences, and a colon after a full sentence to introduce an explanation or list. Use no punctuation when the words belong together without a break.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the word that opens the sentence. Does it let the part about the festival stand alone, or does it leave you waiting for more?
- Hint 2
Try reading the part about tickets as its own sentence, and check whether it can stand alone. Then decide whether you're joining two full sentences or attaching an opening part to one.
Step-by-step
Split and test both parts
Step 1Test the opening part
Split after popular, where the choices put the possible break. Can the opening part stand alone? With Because the festival is so at the start, it gives a reason but leaves us waiting to hear what happens as a result. That opening word means the first part can't stand alone, even though it says the festival is popular.
- Step 2
Test the words after the break
Read the second part as its own sentence: tickets often sell out months in advance. Does it tell us who or what does something? Yes, it names the tickets and tells us they sell out, and no word keeps it from standing alone. So the second part can stand alone.
- Step 3
Attach the opening part
How should the opening reason connect to the full sentence? An opening part that can't stand alone needs a comma before the sentence that follows. That comma belongs after popular, at the end of the reason introduced by Because. The choice popular, tickets puts it there. Choice B.