Question 45·Hard·Boundaries
Although the architectural firm promised that the renovation would preserve the building’s historical ____ original limestone cornices and wrought-iron balconies—the final design documents revealed that both features had been replaced with modern alternatives.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For punctuation-boundary questions, first identify the sentence structure: locate the main clause, any dependent clauses, and any interrupting or extra information. Look for punctuation already present elsewhere in the sentence—especially a second comma or dash—that might need to match what goes in the blank. Then apply the rules: colons and semicolons require a complete clause before them (and semicolons also require a complete clause after), while nonessential information must be enclosed with matching punctuation (commas with commas, dashes with dashes). Use these checks to quickly eliminate options that break these rules.
Hints
Look at the punctuation already in the sentence
Focus on the punctuation that is already printed after “wrought-iron balconies.” How might that affect what belongs in the blank before the phrase naming specific features?
Decide what kind of information the middle phrase gives
Ask yourself: Is “the original limestone cornices and wrought-iron balconies” necessary to make the sentence grammatical, or is it extra descriptive information about the façade?
Think about matching punctuation
When you set off extra, interrupting information in the middle of a sentence, what is true about the punctuation marks that appear before and after that information?
Test each punctuation mark with its usual rules
For the colon and semicolon options, check whether the words before the punctuation could stand alone as a complete sentence (independent clause). For the comma option, ask whether you would also need a second comma later in the sentence to close the interruption.
Step-by-step Explanation
Notice the overall sentence structure
Read the full sentence around the blank:
“Although the architectural firm promised that the renovation would preserve the building’s historical ____ original limestone cornices and wrought-iron balconies—the final design documents revealed that both features had been replaced with modern alternatives.”
The sentence starts with “Although,” so the first part is a dependent (subordinate) clause, followed by the main clause starting at “the final design documents revealed ….”
Identify the role of the middle phrase
The words being inserted introduce the phrase “the original limestone cornices and wrought-iron balconies.”
This phrase gives extra information about the façade (it names specific features of it). That kind of information is nonessential or interrupting—the sentence would still be complete and make sense if you removed it:
“Although the architectural firm promised that the renovation would preserve the building’s historical façade, the final design documents revealed that both features had been replaced with modern alternatives.”
Match the punctuation around the interruption
Nonessential or interrupting information must be set off with matching punctuation marks: either a pair of commas, a pair of parentheses, or a pair of dashes.
Here, the sentence already has a dash after “balconies”—so the punctuation before “the original limestone cornices …” needs to match that dash. You cannot correctly open the interruption with a different mark (like a comma, colon, or semicolon) and close it with a dash.
Eliminate choices that don’t fit and select the correct mark
Check each option:
- façade: the uses a colon, which doesn’t match the dash later and isn’t used to start and end an interrupting phrase.
- façade, the would require a matching comma after “balconies,” not a dash, to properly set off the phrase.
- façade; the is incorrect because a semicolon must join two independent clauses, and what follows is just a noun phrase.
The only choice that correctly pairs with the existing dash to set off the nonessential phrase is façade—the.