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Question

Difficulty: MediumSentence Fragments

Urban heat islands present a growing challenge for modern climatologists. Because concrete and asphalt absorb more solar radiation than natural landscapes do. This phenomenon causes cities to experience significantly higher temperatures than their surrounding rural areas.

Which of the following choices is the best replacement for the underlined portion of the passage?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    climatologists; because concrete and asphalt absorb more solar radiation than natural landscapes do. This
  3. C
    climatologists, concrete and asphalt absorb more solar radiation than natural landscapes do. This
  4. climatologists because concrete and asphalt absorb more solar radiation than natural landscapes do. ThisAnswer

Answer

The correct choice is the option that joins the clauses without punctuation, creating a grammatically sound sentence.
The correct option removes the punctuation between 'climatologists' and the subordinating conjunction 'because', thereby integrating the dependent clause into the main clause and correcting the sentence fragment. It also keeps 'This' as the start of the next independent clause, creating two complete, grammatical sentences.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the underlined portion to identify if it contains a sentence fragment.
The clause starting with the subordinating conjunction 'Because' is a dependent clause punctuated as a complete sentence, which forms a fragment.
Identifying the error type helps narrow down the correct grammatical structure required.
2
Evaluate the proposed options to determine which one connects the dependent clause to the preceding independent clause or makes it complete.
The correct choice removes the punctuation after 'climatologists' to seamlessly attach the dependent clause, forming a single grammatically correct sentence.
Connecting a dependent clause to its main clause eliminates the fragment.
3
Check the remaining options for other grammatical errors, such as comma splices or semicolon errors.
The option with the semicolon creates a semicolon fragment error, and the option with the comma splice incorrectly joins two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction.
Verifying the distractors ensures that the chosen option is the only grammatically correct selection.

Key Concept

Recognizing and correcting sentence fragments by properly connecting dependent clauses to independent clauses.
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Topics

Sentence Fragments

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