A punctuation question with short phrases near the blank tests how you connect sentence parts. Split at the blank and test whether each side can stand alone. A full sentence names who or what it's about and tells what that subject does or is, without a word making it depend on another sentence. Set short phrases aside, because they can hide the boundary. Two full sentences need a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a joining word like and.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with Chen’s sentence and find the verbs that tell what she does. Read through the descriptions to see whether her thought is complete at the blank.
- Hint 2
Check whether the words about the bronze forms can stand alone. Do they name who or what they're about and tell what that person or thing does?
- Hint 3
What remains between the two parts if you temporarily set aside any short introductory phrases? Use that version to check whether the punctuation joins the two parts correctly.
Step-by-step
Find the sentences beneath the short phrases
Step 1Test Chen’s sentence
The phrase as models for bronze ends with the shared word sculptures. To choose the punctuation, ask: can the whole first part stand alone? Chen is the subject, the person who builds and uses, so this part tells what she makes and how she uses it. The first part is a full sentence, even with the descriptions of the wax lattices.
- Step 2
Test the words after the blank
Does the bronze forms preserve not only the lattices' original geometry start another full sentence? Forms is its subject, and preserve is its main verb, the verb that says what the subject does. The remaining words tell us what the bronze forms preserve. This part can stand alone too.
- Step 3
Set aside the short phrases
Now temporarily remove once cast and however from each version. Does either of these short phrases join the sentences? Once cast means after the bronze forms have been cast, and however means even so; neither works like a joining word such as and or but. The words the bronze forms preserve still begin a separate full sentence, so the short phrases don't remove the need for a sentence boundary. Commas that set off those phrases aren't enough to join the two sentences.
- Step 4
Supply a full sentence boundary
A period, a semicolon, or a comma plus and can join two full sentences. Which version uses one of these correctly? The period after sculptures ends Chen's sentence, so Once cast, however, can introduce the new sentence about what the bronze forms preserve. Choice D.