A joining question with an added phrase tests where one full sentence ends and the next begins. Split the text around the phrase and ask could each whole side stand alone? Read past any opening reason to see whether a full sentence follows it. Two full sentences need a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a joining word. Attach the added phrase to the sentence it describes, so it isn't left on its own.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the sentence beginning “A minor party” through to the end. Find who does what on each side of the blank, rather than judging punctuation by a pause.
- Hint 2
The word because begins an opening reason. Check what follows that reason and ask whether the whole stretch from because to the period can stand alone.
Step-by-step
Find the sentences around the extra phrase
Step 1Find the first full sentence
In A minor party can earn 15 percent of the vote, party is the subject, who the sentence is about, and can earn is the main verb, which says what it does. Can this part stand alone? Yes, the first side is a full sentence, so we'll need to mark where it ends.
- Step 2
Place the added description
What does a notable showing add? It describes the 15 percent result but has no main verb of its own. Cross it out, and the statement about votes earned in district after district still works, which shows that the phrase belongs with the first sentence.
- Step 3
Read beyond the opening reason
The word because makes because its candidates repeatedly place second depend on more words. Does that make the whole second side a fragment, a group of words that can't stand alone? No: the comma closes the reason, and the rest tells us what the party may do: the party may still send no representatives to the legislature. Its subject is the party and its main verb is may send, so the reason and the statement together form a full sentence.
- Step 4
Put the boundary after the phrase
Use a comma to attach a notable showing to the voting result, and put the sentence boundary after that phrase. A semicolon can join two full sentences, so it goes after showing, before the sentence beginning because its candidates repeatedly place second. The version across the country, a notable showing; has both marks. Choice C.