A punctuation question about extra information tests whether you can find both ends of a phrase you can leave out. Look around the blank for a side detail, then ask who or what each nearby verb goes with. Cross out the extra information to check that the words left still form a complete sentence. Extra information in the middle needs matching marks at both ends, such as commas. A period ends a complete sentence, and a semicolon joins two complete sentences.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look near the blank for the phrase beginning with unlike. Where does that phrase begin, and where does the main sentence pick up again?
- Hint 2
Check who or what had developed goes with. Does that verb describe the moths' early growth or what they did during the release trials?
- Hint 3
Cross out the unlike phrase and read what remains. Which parts can stand alone as complete sentences?
Step-by-step
Find the insert and match its marks
Step 1Find the extra information
The comma in During release trials, closes an opening time phrase. What does the next comma open? The words unlike those raised in natural add a side detail about the other moths, so we're testing punctuation around an insert, extra information the sentence can do without.
- Step 2
Find the moths' main verb
Do the words the moths that had developed beneath the lamps tell us what the moths did during the trials? No, because had developed belongs to the description beginning with that, which tells us about earlier growth. The moths' main verb, which tells us what they did, is flew, so the insert ends before consistently flew. Cross out the unlike phrase, and the sentence still says that the lamp-raised moths flew toward the ultraviolet source.
- Step 3
Test the sentence breaks
A period or semicolon needs a complete sentence before it. The words During release trials, the moths that had developed beneath the lamps, still have no main verb, so that break would leave a fragment, words that can't stand alone as a sentence. The versions with darkness; they and darkness. They make they the subject of flew instead of giving the first part its missing main verb.
- Step 4
Close the comma pair
Which mark closes this insert? The comma in lamps, unlike means a comma must close it before consistently flew. The version with darkness consistently flew leaves that pair unfinished, while darkness, consistently flew closes it and connects the moths to their main verb. Choice A.