A punctuation question with and tests whether the joined parts are full sentences. Split where the punctuation changes and find each side’s subject and verb. A full sentence needs its own subject and verb, without a word that makes it depend on another sentence. Full sentences take a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a joining word; and alone joins verbs sharing a subject. A colon introduces an explanation of a full sentence, so punctuation follows how the parts connect, not where you’d pause.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the part immediately before the blank. The earlier semicolon already separates it from the part about North’s travels.
- Hint 2
Find the subject and verb after the blank, reading past today. Can those words stand alone, and can the words before the blank?
Step-by-step
Split the sentence and test the join
Step 1Test the words before the blank
The earlier semicolon separates North’s travels from she amassed hundreds of meticulous plant, the part ending at our blank. Can this part stand alone once we add paintings? It can: she is the subject, the person the sentence is about, and amassed is the main verb, the verb saying what she did. The words before the blank form a full sentence.
- Step 2
Look past today for another subject
Does today they constitute one of the largest collections have its own subject and main verb? Yes: they is the subject, and constitute, meaning make up, is the main verb. Today tells us when, and they still counts as a subject even though it points back to the paintings. This part can also stand alone, so punctuation must join two full sentences.
- Step 3
Use the punctuation that works with and
All the versions include and, so the comma and joining word must work as a pair between these full sentences; paintings and leaves the comma out. The semicolon version would work without and, since a semicolon can join full sentences by itself. The colon version would need the next part to explain the claim beginning she amassed, but it adds what the paintings form today. The version paintings, and has the comma and joining word together. Choice A.