Question 19·Easy·Boundaries
The museum’s new exhibition showcases pieces by street artists from around the world ______ the curators hope the collection will inspire visitors to reconsider how public spaces can be used for art.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For punctuation and sentence-boundary questions, first decide whether the words before and after the underlined portion are complete sentences (independent clauses). If they are, you usually need either a period/semicolon or a comma plus a coordinating conjunction (like “and,” “but,” or “or”). Quickly eliminate choices that create fragments, run-ons, or comma splices, and pick the one that cleanly and clearly connects the clauses according to these rules. аnіkο.аi ЅАТ Quеѕtiоn Вank
Hints
Check each side of the blank
Cover the blank with your finger and read what comes before it and what comes after it. Ask yourself: does each side have its own subject and verb, forming a complete sentence?
Think about how to connect full sentences
If both sides of the blank are complete sentences, what type of punctuation or word pattern is normally used to connect them within one larger sentence?
Watch out for run-ons and comma splices
Eliminate any choice that either (1) sticks two complete sentences together with just a comma, or (2) sticks them together with just a word and no needed punctuation. aniкo.ai ЅАТ Queѕtiоn Bаnk
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the clauses on each side of the blank
Read the sentence in two parts:
- Before the blank: “The museum’s new exhibition showcases pieces by street artists from around the world” — this has a subject (“The museum’s new exhibition”) and a verb (“showcases”), so it is a complete sentence.
- After the blank: “the curators hope the collection will inspire visitors to reconsider how public spaces can be used for art” — this also has a subject (“the curators”) and a verb (“hope”), so it is another complete sentence.
So you are connecting two independent clauses.
Recall the rule for joining two independent clauses
In Standard English, when you join two independent clauses in one sentence, you usually do it with:
- a comma + coordinating conjunction (for example, ", and", ", but", ", or"), or
- another correct sentence boundary (like a period or semicolon, which are not options here).
So we are looking for a choice that clearly joins the clauses in this way, not one that creates a run-on or comma splice.
Test each answer choice against the rule
Insert each option and check the structure:
- A) “, the” gives: “…world, the curators hope…” — that’s a comma directly between two complete clauses without a joining conjunction, which creates a comma splice.
- B) “and the” and C) “and” both try to join the ideas with just “and” but no comma, which makes the sentence a run-on because two full clauses are stuck together without proper punctuation.
- D) “, and” gives: “The museum’s new exhibition showcases pieces by street artists from around the world, and the curators hope the collection will inspire visitors…” This correctly uses comma + coordinating conjunction to join two independent clauses.
Therefore, the correct answer is D) , and. Аniko Queѕtion Bank