Question 52·Easy·Boundaries
Caroline is signing up volunteers for the neighborhood cleanup _____ Saturday morning, and she hopes at least twenty people will attend.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For punctuation-in-the-middle questions, first identify the sentence’s main clauses and see where true boundaries occur (like between independent clauses). Then read the words immediately around the blank and ask whether they form a single unit (like a prepositional phrase) or if there’s a real break in meaning. Only choose punctuation if it serves a clear purpose—such as separating clauses, lists, or nonessential information; if the phrase reads smoothly without a pause, the correct choice is usually the simplest one with no extra punctuation.
Hints
Locate the clauses
Notice that the comma before and already separates two complete ideas: one about signing up volunteers and one about hoping twenty people will attend. The blank is inside the first idea, not at a clause boundary.
Think about the phrase around the blank
Read just this part: "for the neighborhood cleanup _____ Saturday morning." What kind of phrase is "Saturday morning" here, and how does it connect to "cleanup"?
Ask if you need a pause
When you say the sentence out loud, do you naturally pause right where the blank is, or does the phrase flow straight through?
Recall what dashes, commas, and colons usually do
A dash creates a big interruption, a comma often marks smaller breaks or lists, and a colon usually follows a complete sentence before a list or explanation. Do any of those jobs make sense inside this simple time phrase?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the sentence structure
Read the whole sentence:
"Caroline is signing up volunteers for the neighborhood cleanup _____ Saturday morning, and she hopes at least twenty people will attend."
There are two parts joined by and:
- First part: "Caroline is signing up volunteers for the neighborhood cleanup _____ Saturday morning"
- Second part: "she hopes at least twenty people will attend"
The comma before and is already handling the separation between the two independent clauses.
Identify what belongs in the blank
Focus on the first part: "...the neighborhood cleanup _____ Saturday morning."
Here, "Saturday morning" tells when the cleanup happens, so it should be part of a time phrase like "on Saturday morning." That means we need a preposition plus no unnecessary break between the noun "cleanup" and the time phrase.
Decide if punctuation is needed at the blank
Ask yourself: Is there a natural pause or a separate idea at the blank?
- "the neighborhood cleanup on Saturday morning" is a single, smooth phrase.
- We would not normally pause or break between "cleanup" and "Saturday morning."
Therefore, the blank should not contain a punctuation mark that interrupts this phrase.
Evaluate each choice and pick the one that keeps the phrase smooth
Now look at the options:
- "on—" uses a dash, which creates a strong break in thought and is not appropriate inside this simple phrase.
- "on," inserts an unnecessary comma between "cleanup" and its time phrase.
- "on:" uses a colon, which should follow a complete sentence before introducing a list or explanation, which we do not have here.
- "on" keeps the prepositional phrase "on Saturday morning" together with no interruption, which follows standard English conventions.
So the correct answer is D) on.