A punctuation question with extra information after the blank tests how the sentence's parts fit together. Read ahead to find where the description ends and test the sentence without it. Check what each punctuation mark needs: commas and dashes can surround extra information, a colon introduces an explanation after a complete sentence, and a semicolon joins complete sentences. If a description interrupts a sentence, check both of its edges to see how the punctuation works together.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the words beginning with a movement and ask how they relate to what Riley pioneered.
- Hint 2
Look for where the sentence returns to Riley's earliest works. Mentally remove the movement's description to see how the remaining ideas connect.
- Hint 3
Check how the description begins and ends. What job does the punctuation already in the sentence do?
Step-by-step
Trace the description and match its marks
Step 1See what the description adds
Read the words immediately after the blank: a movement characterized by optical illusions. What do they add to what Riley pioneered? They describe the named movement, rather than tell us a second thing Riley did. Once the name fills the blank, we know what Riley pioneered, so this description may be an insert, extra information the sentence can do without.
- Step 2
Find where the main sentence returns
How far does that insert run? It includes the way the optical illusions are made, then stops at patterns—but her earliest works reveal, where the sentence turns back to Riley's work. The sentence connects two main ideas: Riley pioneered the named movement, but her early works show Impressionism's influence. Mentally remove the description, and those two ideas still connect, which shows that the description is an insert in the middle of the sentence. The dash at this point marks the end of that insert, not the end of the whole sentence.
- Step 3
Match the opening and closing marks
Which mark can open an insert that already ends with a dash? An insert in the middle needs matching marks, whether those marks are commas, dashes, or parentheses. The dash in patterns—but is fixed, so the punctuation at the blank must be a dash too. Op Art— gives the opening mark that matches the one already in the text. Choice D.