A punctuation question tests how the parts around a blank fit together. Read both parts and test whether each can stand alone, checking for words that make one part depend on the other. Match the punctuation to that structure: a period separates complete sentences, and a semicolon joins complete sentences. A comma separates an opening dependent clause, which can’t stand alone, from the main clause. No punctuation is needed when the words belong together without a break.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the word that opens the sentence. Does it change whether the words before the blank can stand alone?
- Hint 2
Read the opening by itself, then the words about the lookout. Ask whether both parts can be full sentences or whether one still needs the other.
Step-by-step
Test the sentence parts
Step 1Identify the parts to test
Read the words on both sides of food _____ lookout. The opening tells us about the members searching, and the rest tells us about a lookout watching for predators. To decide how to join them, we need to test whether each part can stand alone. Start with the opening word, since it can change whether a group of words is a complete sentence.
- Step 2
Test the opening words
Can While most members of a meerkat group search for food stand alone once we add nearby? We know the members search for food, but While makes us wait: what happens during their search? So the opening can't stand alone. It needs the part that tells us what happens at the same time.
- Step 3
Attach the opening to the full sentence
Can the rest stand alone? It tells us who is watching and what they're doing: a lookout stands upright and watches for approaching predators. A comma attaches the unfinished opening to that full sentence, which is what nearby, a does. Choice D.