Question 214·Easy·Boundaries
Historian Marcus Lin’s new book compares the rise of maritime trade in the ancient Mediterranean to advancements in contemporary shipping; it argues that global commerce has always depended on the courage of sailors and the vision of merchants _____
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For Standard English “sentence-boundary” questions, first read the whole sentence and identify where the independent clauses are—look for semicolons, conjunctions, and relative pronouns. Then decide whether the missing text should continue the current clause or start a new one. Finally, eliminate options with incorrect capitalization (capital letters in the middle of a sentence without reason) or wrong end punctuation (a comma at the end, or a question mark when the sentence is clearly a statement). This systematic check usually narrows the answers quickly.
Hints
Check the role of the semicolon
Notice that there is already a semicolon before “it argues.” That semicolon splits the sentence into two complete thoughts. The part after the blank still needs to be part of the second thought, not a brand new sentence.
Look at the word before the blank
The blank comes right after the word “merchants.” Ask yourself: are we describing those merchants, or starting something completely new? What kind of word usually starts a clause that describes people?
Think about end punctuation and capitalization
Is this whole sentence a question or a statement? Should a comma ever be the last punctuation mark in a sentence? Also, should the word in the blank be capitalized if it comes in the middle of the sentence?
Step-by-step Explanation
Analyze the sentence structure up to the blank
Read the sentence without the blank:
“Historian Marcus Lin’s new book compares the rise of maritime trade in the ancient Mediterranean to advancements in contemporary shipping; it argues that global commerce has always depended on the courage of sailors and the vision of merchants _____”
The semicolon already splits the sentence into two related independent clauses:
- Clause 1: “Historian Marcus Lin’s new book compares … to advancements in contemporary shipping”
- Clause 2: “it argues that global commerce has always depended on the courage of sailors and the vision of merchants _____”
So the blank must finish the second clause and bring the whole sentence to a grammatically correct end.
Decide what kind of phrase must fill the blank
Focus on the words before the blank: “the vision of merchants _____”.
We want to describe what kind of merchants they were, so we need a descriptive clause that attaches to “merchants.” A common way to do this is with a relative clause starting with a word like “who,” “that,” or “which.”
So the blank should continue the sentence as a modifier of “merchants,” not start a new sentence or break the structure.
Choose the correct capitalization and punctuation
Because the blank is in the middle of the sentence, the first word there should not be capitalized; it should smoothly continue the sentence.
Also, the entire sentence is a statement, not a question, and it must end with proper terminal punctuation (a period). A comma cannot end a sentence, and a question mark would change the sentence into a question, which does not match the meaning.
So we need a choice that:
- begins with a lowercase relative pronoun to describe “merchants,” and
- ends the whole sentence with a period.
Match the reasoning to the answer choices
Now check each option against what we need:
- The correct choice is the only one that starts with a lowercase relative pronoun to continue the sentence and ends with a period to finish the statement.
Therefore, the correct answer is A) who dared to cross uncertain seas.