A punctuation question with added descriptions tests whether you can separate the main sentence from extra details. Read to the end to find the subject and its main verb, because a describing phrase may contain words that look like verbs. Then cross out the added details to check that the sentence still works. Extra information in the middle needs matching marks at both ends. Commas inside a list separate its items, so keep reading until the whole description ends.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the second sentence all the way to the period. Find the verb that says what the confession’s final sentence does.
- Hint 2
Look at the commas within the descriptions. Which ones separate items in a list, and which one marks where the main sentence picks up again?
- Hint 3
Cross out the descriptions as one group. How does each choice affect the sentence that remains and the punctuation around the removed words?
Step-by-step
Find the insert and match its marks
Step 1Find the main verb
Read past the blank to overturns that account. What overturns the account? The confession’s final sentence is the subject, the thing being discussed, and overturns is its main verb, which says what it does. So we need wording and punctuation that let the subject reach that verb. The main verb comes after the blank.
- Step 2
Trace the whole insert
Which words come between the subject and its main verb? The phrases about the hurried handwriting, the lower margin, and the lighthouse keeper all describe the final sentence. The commas after in a hurried hand, and crowded into the page’s lower margin, separate items in that list, which continues through rather than to the magistrate,. Cross out the whole group, and the main thought still works: the confession’s final sentence overturns the account. The whole list is an insert, extra information that can be removed.
- Step 3
Check for an added main verb
Can was written work inside that insert? It gives the final sentence another main verb, while overturns that account is already its main verb. Neither sentence was written nor sentence, was written joins those verbs with and. The insert must describe, not add a second main verb.
- Step 4
Open the matching pair
The comma after rather than to the magistrate, closes the insert, so what must open it? An insert in the middle needs matching marks. The version sentence written leaves the closing comma without an opener, while sentence, written adds that opener and uses written to describe the final sentence. Choice B.