A punctuation question about extra information tests whether you can separate an added detail from the main sentence. Read around the blank to find where a detail starts and where the main sentence picks up again. Then cross out the added detail; the remaining words must still make a complete sentence. Extra information needs matching marks: two commas or two dashes. A colon follows a complete sentence and introduces a list or explanation.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look back from the blank at the punctuation after the bird’s name. What words does it separate from the main sentence?
- Hint 2
Try crossing out the description of the parrot and reading what remains. Where does the description end, and where does the main sentence pick up again?
Step-by-step
Find the description and match its marks
Step 1Find what opens the description
Look back from the blank to the kakapo—a flightless parrot native to. The dash begins a description of the kakapo, so this punctuation question asks how to close that description. Does the earlier comma belong to it? No: the comma in Unlike most nocturnal birds, separates the opening comparison from the rest of the sentence, while the dash opens the extra information about the kakapo.
- Step 2
Find the end and cross it out
Where does the description end? Each choice gives relies as the main verb, the word that tells us what the kakapo does. The words before it finish the description by naming where the parrot is native. Cross out that description, and the main sentence reads: the kakapo relies on a keen sense of smell. This complete sentence shows that the description is extra information we can remove, with the blank at its end.
- Step 3
Close with the matching mark
Extra information in the middle of a sentence must close with the kind of mark that opened it. The opener in kakapo—a is a dash, so a second dash must close the added detail. The version New Zealand—relies adds that dash after the place name, keeping the full description between matching marks while the main sentence continues with the bird’s verb. Choice A.