A punctuation question about a name tests whether it says which person or adds extra information. Read the words before the name and ask whether they already pick out one person. An essential name says which one and takes no commas; an extra name in the middle of a sentence needs a full pair. Cross the name out to see whether the sentence still works and says who, then check both ends of the name to place any commas.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the words before the blank, especially eldest. Do they already tell us which daughter the sentence means?
- Hint 2
Cross out the daughter's name mentally. Does what remains still say who followed, and where does the sentence pick up again?
Step-by-step
Essential or extra?
Step 1Test what the name does
Read eldest, the word before the blank, to decide what the daughter's name does. Does the sentence already pick out one daughter? The word means oldest, so it picks out a single daughter without giving her name. The name adds extra information, rather than being an essential part needed to say which daughter.
- Step 2
Locate both ends of the extra information
Cross out the name mentally and read on to followed in her mother's footsteps. What’s left? Marie Curie's eldest daughter followed her mother's path, so we still have a subject, the person the sentence is about, and a main verb, what she did. The name sits inside the sentence before that verb, so extra information needs a full pair of commas here. One comma opens the extra name after daughter, and the other closes it before the verb.
- Step 3
Choose the complete comma pair
Which version gives the name a comma on both sides? The version with no commas doesn't set off the extra name, while the version with a comma only before the name leaves out the closing comma. A comma only after the name has nothing to close and separates the subject from followed. The version with commas before and after the name sets off Irène Joliot-Curie and lets the verb follow it. Choice B.