Question 95·Medium·Boundaries
French mathematician Sophie Germain corresponded with Carl Friedrich Gauss under the pseudonym "M. LeBlanc." This _____ to mask her identity in a male-dominated field, allowed her to engage freely in scholarly debate.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For SAT punctuation/boundaries questions, first strip the sentence down to its core subject–verb–object to see what must stay together. Then decide whether any middle phrase is essential or extra information; extra (nonessential) information in the middle usually needs matching punctuation on both sides (commas, dashes, or parentheses). Finally, eliminate choices that create unbalanced or mismatched punctuation and choose the one that cleanly sets off the nonessential phrase while leaving the core sentence intact.
Hints
Find the core sentence
Temporarily cover or skip over the words "chosen to mask her identity in a male-dominated field" and see what the basic sentence looks like without them.
Decide if the middle phrase is essential
Ask yourself: Do we need the words "chosen to mask her identity in a male-dominated field" to know what "This alias" refers to, or are they extra description?
Think in pairs of punctuation
Once you see the phrase is extra information in the middle, remember that commas, dashes, and parentheses that set off such phrases usually come in pairs—check which option can correctly match the comma that already appears after the phrase.
Read aloud for flow
Try reading the sentence with each option and see where you naturally pause; the correct punctuation will match those natural pauses and keep the core sentence intact.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the role of the phrase
Look at the words "chosen to mask her identity in a male-dominated field." This group of words describes "This alias" and is not necessary to understand the core sentence—it’s extra, descriptive information.
The core sentence without that descriptive phrase is:
"This alias allowed her to engage freely in scholarly debate."
That makes sense on its own, so the descriptive phrase is nonessential and should be set off from the main clause with punctuation on both sides.
Notice the existing comma after the phrase
After the descriptive phrase, the sentence already has a comma before the main verb:
"... chosen to mask her identity in a male-dominated field, allowed her to engage ..."
Because there is already a comma after the phrase, the punctuation you choose must correctly pair with that structure. For a nonessential phrase in the middle of a sentence, you either:
- use commas on both sides,
- or use dashes on both sides,
- or use parentheses around the whole phrase.
Using only one mark (or mismatched marks) is incorrect.
Eliminate options that cannot form a proper pair
Check each choice:
- alias (chosen would begin a parenthetical aside, but there is no closing parenthesis later—only a comma—so the punctuation is unbalanced.
- alias—chosen would need another em dash after "field" instead of the comma that is already there to close the aside; as written, it’s mismatched.
- alias chosen (with no punctuation) would leave only one comma after the phrase. A nonessential middle phrase must be fully set off or not set off at all; this half-separated structure is ungrammatical.
Confirm the correct punctuation
The remaining option uses a comma after "alias," which pairs with the existing comma after "field" to set off the nonessential phrase:
"This alias, chosen to mask her identity in a male-dominated field, allowed her to engage freely in scholarly debate."
This is grammatically correct and clearly shows the descriptive phrase as extra information. So the correct answer is alias, chosen.