Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Question

Beginning her fieldwork only after she turned fifty, the Mexican American botanist Ynés Mexía traveled from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and, in just thirteen years, gathered more than 100,000 plant ______ unknown to science.

Accepted Answer

A. specimens, many of them previously. "Many of them previously unknown to science" has no finite verb: it is an absolute phrase modifying the whole main clause, so it must be attached to that clause with a comma. (B) uses a semicolon, which can join only two independent clauses; the material after it is not a clause, so the semicolon is misused — this is the error of assuming any long, subject-like word group is a clause. (C) makes the same misjudgment more severely, ending the sentence and leaving "Many of them previously unknown to science" as a fragment. (D) inserts the finite verb "were," which converts the phrase into an independent clause; now the comma before it creates a comma splice — the classic trap of "fixing" the phrase into a clause while keeping comma-level punctuation.

Answer

B. specimens; many of them previously — A semicolon can only join two independent clauses, but "many of them previously unknown to science" has no finite verb — it's a phrase, not a clause.

Answer

C. specimens. Many of them previously — Ending the sentence leaves "Many of them previously unknown to science" as a fragment, since it has no verb of its own.

Answer

D. specimens, many of them were previously — Adding "were" turns the phrase into a full independent clause, so the comma before it now creates a comma splice.

Standard English Conventions practice question

Answer: A. specimens, many of them previously

Why the other answers are wrong

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