A punctuation question with choices that differ only in their marks tests how sentence parts connect. Read across the blank and check for a full sentence: a colon or a single dash introducing what follows needs a full sentence before it. Then name the parts on each side. A comma can set off extra information, but it can't separate a subject from its verb. Decide from sentence structure rather than where you might pause.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read up to the blank and ask whether the title and name form a full sentence on their own.
- Hint 2
Look at the words immediately after the blank. Which word tells us what Dr. Lisa does, and which tells us how often?
- Hint 3
Shorten the title and name to she and read the sentence again. How do the words on either side of the blank connect?
Step-by-step
Test the break, then find the subject
Step 1Check whether the words before the blank can stand alone
Read from Renowned epidemiologist Dr. Lisa to the blank, including the last name given by the choices. Can that stretch stand alone as a full sentence? It names a person but doesn't yet say what she does, so there's no main verb before the blank. A colon or a single dash introducing what follows needs a full sentence before it, which rules out the version with a colon and the version with a dash.
- Step 2
Find the verb and who goes with it
In frequently appears on public radio programs, appears is the main verb, which tells us what someone does. Who appears on those programs? Dr. Lisa does, so the title and name before the blank form the subject, the person the sentence is about. The word frequently tells us how often she appears, but it doesn't change which person goes with the verb. The blank sits between the whole subject and its verb.
- Step 3
Shrink the subject to test the comma
Shrink the title and name to she: She frequently appears on public radio programs. Would a comma belong after she? It wouldn't, because no mark goes between a subject and its verb, and the longer title and name follow the same rule. The version Hernandez, with no punctuation, keeps that subject joined to the words that tell us what Dr. Lisa does. Choice D.