A punctuation question with several marks in each choice tests how sentence parts join. Read the words leading into the blank, and test one boundary at a time. A period or semicolon needs full sentences on both sides; a colon needs a full sentence before words that explain it. Then find who or what each verb is about, since no comma goes between a subject and its verb. A long choice can sound smooth while breaking a rule.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the words leading into the blank, especially although. What does that word make the sentence wait for?
- Hint 2
Test the ending as a sentence on its own. Does “coordinated effort resembling a modern assembly line” have a main verb?
- Hint 3
Once you've checked where the sentence parts join, find each subject and its main verb. Which words tell you who or what the verb is about?
Step-by-step
Test each punctuation spot
Step 1Finish the contrast
The phrase The arrangement proved so effective that although continues into the choices, so test the punctuation inside that sentence. What does although make us expect? It means even though, so the words about the master's name depend on the words telling us what painting had become. The contrast needs a comma after name. The version with a semicolon after name and the version with a colon after name each need a full sentence before that mark, but the result starting with that is still unfinished there.
- Step 2
Attach the final description
Read coordinated effort resembling a modern assembly line with the a in each choice. Can that ending stand alone? The ending names what painting had become, but resembling only describes the effort. With no main verb saying what the effort does or is, these words can't stand alone. A colon needs a full sentence before words that explain it, and the sentence is complete at different, so a colon can attach this description.
- Step 3
Check the subject and verb
Now find the subject of had become: what had become something different? The answer is painting itself, so those words belong with the verb had become, and no comma goes between a subject and its verb. The version with painting itself, splits that subject from its verb, so choose the version that leaves painting itself had become together. Choice D.