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Question

Difficulty: HardSentence Fragments

Peat bogs play a vital role in global carbon storage by locking away billions of tons of carbon dioxide. However, because agricultural draining and commercial harvesting have severely damaged these ecosystems, releasing massive amounts of greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere.

Which choice most effectively corrects the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    However, because agricultural draining and commercial harvesting have severely damaged these ecosystems, releasing
  2. However, agricultural draining and commercial harvesting have severely damaged these ecosystems, releasingAnswer
  3. C
    However, agricultural draining and commercial harvesting have severely damaged these ecosystems; releasing
  4. D
    However, agricultural draining and commercial harvesting have severely damaged these ecosystems, this releases

Answer

The choice that reads 'However, agricultural draining and commercial harvesting have severely damaged these ecosystems, releasing'
The correct answer fixes the fragment by removing the subordinating conjunction 'because', which allows the clause 'agricultural draining and commercial harvesting have severely damaged these ecosystems' to function as an independent clause. The sentence is then correctly completed by a comma and a dependent participial phrase.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the grammatical issue in the underlined portion.
The subordinating conjunction 'because' makes the clause 'because agricultural draining and commercial harvesting have severely damaged these ecosystems' dependent, leaving the entire sentence without an independent clause and creating a fragment.
Every grammatically correct sentence must contain at least one independent clause.
2
Evaluate the choices to find one that creates a complete sentence without introducing new errors.
Removing 'because' turns the clause into an independent clause with 'agricultural draining and commercial harvesting' as the subject and 'have severely damaged' as the verb.
This establishes the necessary main clause for the sentence.
3
Verify that punctuation is used correctly in the chosen option.
The comma followed by the participial phrase 'releasing...' correctly modifies the preceding independent clause, unlike the semicolon which creates a fragment, or the comma splice in the other options.
Correct punctuation ensures clear sentence structure and avoids comma splices or fragments.

Key Concept

Sentence fragments occur when a group of words lacks an independent clause, often because it is introduced by a subordinating conjunction without a main clause to follow.
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Sentence Fragments

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