A punctuation question with two changing marks tests how parts of a sentence fit together. Test each changing mark separately, asking whether the words on either side can stand alone. A full sentence says what someone or something does or is without needing another part. Check what follows each mark: commas can attach describing phrases, semicolons need full sentences on both sides, and colons follow full sentences to introduce a list or words that explain them.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start at the second sentence and read up to the first changing mark. Could those words stand alone?
- Hint 2
In the words you insert, check whether the part about each campaign has a verb. Could it stand alone without adding words?
- Hint 3
Read from in one through the end of the passage. Ask how those three repairs connect to the statement about the campaigns.
Step-by-step
Test each punctuation job
Step 1Test the first statement
Read These differences point to three distinct repair with campaigns added. Can it stand alone? Yes: differences is the subject, what it's about, and point is the main verb, which says what the subject does. The statement is complete before the first changing mark.
- Step 2
Attach the added description
What follows campaigns in every version? The words each apparently from a different decade describe the repair campaigns but can't stand alone. They have no main verb saying what each one does or is; adding is after each would turn them into a full sentence. A semicolon needs full sentences on both sides, so it can't separate the statement about three distinct repair campaigns from these words. A comma attaches this describing phrase to the statement.
- Step 3
Identify the list
Read in one, conservators replaced the original wool fringe, then look ahead to ground; and in the third. How do these parts connect to the opening statement? They tell what happened in the three repair campaigns, so they form a list explaining that statement. The semicolons already divide the list's items; the changing mark after decade comes before its first item.
- Step 4
Introduce the list
Which mark can introduce this list? A colon follows a full sentence to introduce words that list or explain it, so a colon belongs after decade, before in one, conservators replaced the original wool fringe. That selects campaigns, each apparently from a different decade:. Choice D.