A punctuation question at a possible sentence ending tests how the next words connect. Cover what follows and test whether the words before the blank stand alone. Then read on for a subject and its main verb, looking past parts that describe a noun. A colon needs a full sentence followed by a list or explanation; a period or semicolon separates full sentences; because needs a subject and main verb for the reason. Don't treat a describing part as a full sentence.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the sentence about the survey's objective up to the blank. Test whether those words can stand alone once the missing word is included.
- Hint 2
In the words after the blank, look for a main verb for identification. Who or what does shelter, and who or what does disturb?
- Hint 3
Once you've tested whether the words after the blank stand alone, ask what they tell you about the objective.
Step-by-step
Test the statement and what follows
Step 1Check the opening statement
Read The survey's immediate objective was deliberately with narrow, which every choice supplies, and cover everything after that word. Can the words left stand alone? Yes: objective is the subject, was is the main verb, and narrow finishes what the sentence says about the objective. The opening statement is complete, so we're choosing how to connect it to what follows, not how to finish an incomplete thought.
- Step 2
Find the main verb after the blank
Does the group starting with precise identification have its own main verb? In identification of the channels, identification is the main noun, but no verb says what it does or is. Read on: where juvenile fish shelter describes the channels, while when storms disturb the open water says when the fish shelter. So shelter goes with fish, and disturb goes with storms, not with identification. The group after the blank can't stand alone because it's a phrase, a group of words without its own main verb.
- Step 3
Connect the objective to its description
What does the phrase tell us about the immediate objective? It spells out the objective itself: identifying the channels where juvenile fish shelter during storms. A colon can attach a phrase that explains a full sentence, so narrow: precise connects the statement about the narrow objective to the words that name it. Choice B.