Question 74·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Standard English Conventions
Drawing on trace-element and isotope data, some archaeologists have linked the tin in artifacts from three Late Bronze Age centers—one at Hattusa, another at Ugarit, and a third at Enkomi (a port on present-day ______ to ore deposits in Central Asia, complicating the once-common view that bronze makers relied chiefly on nearby materials.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For questions involving nested punctuation, first remove all supplementary material to identify the main sentence. Then restore each inserted element and match its opening and closing punctuation, working from the innermost element outward. An element opened by a parenthesis must close before the larger element surrounding it can close.
Hints
Find the underlying structure
Temporarily remove the list of the three ancient centers. Determine which words belong together in the main sentence.
Track both opening marks
Notice that one supplementary element begins with an em dash and a second, nested element begins with an opening parenthesis.
Work from the inside outward
When one supplementary element appears inside another, close the inner element before closing the outer one.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the main sentence
Without the supplementary list, the main sentence reads, “Some archaeologists have linked the tin in artifacts from three Late Bronze Age centers to ore deposits in Central Asia.” This structure is complete.
Close the outer supplementary element
The list beginning with “one at Hattusa” interrupts the main sentence and is introduced by an em dash after “centers.” A matching em dash must follow the list.
Close the punctuation in the correct order
Within the list, the parenthesis before “a port” creates a second supplementary element. That inner parenthetical element must be closed first, after which the em dash can close the larger interrupted list. This produces “Cyprus)—.”