A punctuation question with a blank inside a sentence tests which words belong together. Read both sides and name the parts that meet, checking which can stand alone. A semicolon needs a full sentence on each side, and a colon needs one before it. Commas can separate items or extra details, but can't separate a verb from its object, which tells what the verb acts on. Leave words joined when no punctuation rule calls for a break.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the words after the blank. Do they have a subject and a verb that would let them stand alone as a sentence?
- Hint 2
Ask what the verb acts on. Which words tell us what the arrival of refrigerated railcars made possible?
Step-by-step
Test the break, then find the object
Step 1Test the semicolon and colon
Test the semicolon and colon by asking: can the words around the mark stand alone? A semicolon needs a full sentence on each side, and a colon needs one before it. The words before either mark stop without saying what was made possible, while the long-distance transport of perishable goods has no verb of its own. So the semicolon and colon don't work here.
- Step 2
Find the verb's object
What job do the words after the blank do? The sentence says that the advent of refrigerated railcars made something possible, and the phrase after the blank tells us what. That phrase is the verb's object, what the verb acts on, rather than a separate sentence.
- Step 3
Keep the verb attached to its object
No mark belongs between a verb and its object. Would a comma help? It would split enabled from the long-distance transport of perishable goods, the words the verb needs. The version enabled leaves those parts together with no added mark. Choice B.