A punctuation question tests how the parts of a sentence connect. When a blank comes before a description, read the words on both sides and find the word being described. Then ask what the description adds: does it tell which person or thing you mean, or give extra information? A description that identifies the noun takes no separating mark; extra information can go between matching marks. Punctuation depends on that difference, not on where you pause as you read.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the words beginning with that. What do they tell you about Tech for Tomorrow?
- Hint 2
Check the job of the description. Does it tell what kind of nonprofit we're talking about, or add an aside?
Step-by-step
Connect the noun to its description
Step 1Find what the description belongs to
Read past the blank to that provides free coding workshops. What do those words describe? They tell us about the nonprofit, so this punctuation question turns on how a noun connects to its description. The verb provides belongs inside that description.
- Step 2
Check whether the description identifies the noun
Does the description identify the kind of nonprofit, or sit apart as an aside? that provides free coding workshops to underserved youth identifies it by the work it does. A that clause, a group of words starting with that and containing a verb, takes no separating punctuation when it identifies a noun. The version with a comma and the version with a dash break that direct link to the noun.
- Step 3
Check the added linking word
Could organization, and connect the parts instead? And joins parts doing the same job, but that provides describes the noun rather than adding a second main statement. Use organization directly before that description, with no mark or added linking word. Choice C.