A punctuation question with the same transition in every choice tests where sentences end. Cover the transition and split the sentence, then ask whether each side can stand alone. A period or semicolon separates full sentences; a comma alone or no punctuation can't. To set off a transition, use one comma at a sentence's start or end, and two in the middle. Check which ideas the transition links, because it can't join full sentences by itself.
Hints
- Hint 1
Cover nevertheless and split the text. Can the words on each side stand alone as a full sentence?
- Hint 2
Nevertheless means despite that. Read the words on both sides of the blank, and check how the doubt relates to Rubin's data.
Step-by-step
Cover, split, and place the transition
Step 1Find the full sentences
Cover the transition nevertheless, a word that links ideas, and read the text on either side of it. Can each side stand alone? Before the blank, Rubin collected extensive data on galactic rotation, so we have someone and what she did. After it, many of her contemporaries remained unconvinced about dark matter also gives us people and what they thought. Both sides are full sentences, so we need punctuation that separates them while keeping the link between their ideas.
- Step 2
Check the sentence breaks
A transition can't join two full sentences by itself, so we need a mark that can separate them. The version rotation nevertheless has no punctuation, which makes the sentences run together. The version rotation nevertheless, leaves only a comma after the transition, which isn't a sentence break. In rotation, nevertheless,, cover the transition again: only a comma comes before many of her contemporaries remained unconvinced. That's a comma splice, two full sentences joined by only a comma.
- Step 3
Place the transition by meaning
Nevertheless means despite that, so does it fit at the start of the second sentence? Yes: her contemporaries remained unconvinced despite the extensive data Rubin had collected, so the transition introduces their continued doubt. A semicolon separates the two full sentences, and a comma after nevertheless sets off that opening transition. The version rotation; nevertheless, has both marks in those places. Choice D.