A punctuation question with the same transition in every choice tests how you set off a word that links ideas. Cover the transition and split, checking where complete sentences end. Commas set off transitions; colons follow complete sentences to introduce explanations or lists; dashes mark breaks or interruptions. Without punctuation, words must fit together without a break. Then check the transition's position: at the start or end, it takes one comma; inside, it takes two.
Hints
- Hint 1
The semicolon is already part of the passage. Cover the transition and read each side to check whether each could stand alone.
- Hint 2
Read however with the words that follow it, and check where it sits in that sentence. What punctuation rule applies to a transition in that position?
Step-by-step
Cover, split, and set off the transition
Step 1Locate the existing sentence break
Cover however and read across the printed semicolon. Could each side stand alone? The author argues leads into a complete claim about limiting screen time, while the studies she relies on were conducted exclusively with adults tells us who was studied. The semicolon already separates two full sentences, so this question isn't asking us to create that break. We need to work out how the transition fits into the sentence after it.
- Step 2
Read the link between the ideas
What does however add to the sentence about the studies? However means but or despite that. The author makes a claim about students' ability to concentrate, and then we learn that the studies were conducted exclusively with adults. The adult-only studies raise a concern about support for the claim about students, so however introduces a contrast. Because it comes right after the semicolon, it opens that sentence rather than sitting in its middle.
- Step 3
Set off the opening transition
An opening transition needs a comma after it, so however must be separated from the studies. The version without punctuation gives no mark to set the transition off. The colon version puts a colon after however alone, but a colon needs a full sentence before it. The dash version doesn't supply the comma used to set off a transition from the sentence it introduces. The form however, puts the comma where it belongs, between the transition and the sentence it opens. Choice B.