Question 215·Medium·Boundaries
Marine biologist Sylvia Earle, _____ "Her Deepness" by her peers, has spent thousands of hours exploring the world's oceans.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For punctuation-boundary questions, first read the entire sentence without focusing on the choices to understand how the parts of the sentence fit together. Identify whether the phrase around the blank is already set off with commas, dashes, or parentheses, and then choose the option whose punctuation matches that structure without adding extras or creating mismatches. Quickly eliminate any answer that introduces unnecessary or unpaired punctuation marks, and prefer the simplest choice that keeps the sentence grammatically and logically clear.
Hints
Look at the punctuation already in the sentence
Notice the commas around the blank. How is the phrase about Sylvia Earle set off from the rest of the sentence?
Identify the job of the phrase with the blank
The words between the commas give extra information about Sylvia Earle. Think about what kind of word or phrase usually appears inside this kind of descriptive section.
Check for extra or mismatched punctuation
Ask yourself: does the blank need to introduce new punctuation, or is the punctuation around the phrase already complete? Look for answer choices that might add unnecessary commas, dashes, or parentheses.
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the structure of the sentence
Read the full sentence with the blank:
"Marine biologist Sylvia Earle, _____ "Her Deepness" by her peers, has spent thousands of hours exploring the world's oceans."
The part between the commas (from the comma before the blank to the comma after "peers") is a descriptive phrase explaining something about Sylvia Earle. This kind of phrase is called a nonessential or parenthetical phrase and is correctly set off by commas.
Decide what kind of word belongs in the blank
Inside that descriptive phrase, we need a word that connects Sylvia Earle to the nickname "Her Deepness."
A past participle like "nicknamed" works to describe her: "Sylvia Earle, [being] nicknamed 'Her Deepness' by her peers, ..." The existing commas already mark the boundaries of this phrase, so we only need the word itself in the blank.
Evaluate the punctuation around the blank
Look carefully at the punctuation that is already present:
- There is a comma immediately before the blank (after "Earle,").
- There is no punctuation immediately after the blank, just the opening quotation mark for "Her Deepness."
- Later in the phrase, there is a closing comma after "peers" to end the descriptive section.
Because the phrase is already enclosed by commas, adding an extra comma, dash, or parenthesis right after the word in the blank would create incorrect or mismatched punctuation.
Match the correct choice to the sentence
Now check each answer choice:
- "nicknamed," adds an extra comma.
- "nicknamed—" adds an em dash.
- "nicknamed (" adds an opening parenthesis without a partner.
- "nicknamed" has no extra punctuation and fits smoothly between the existing commas.
The only choice that gives just the word we need, without creating punctuation errors, is C) nicknamed.