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Question

Difficulty: EasyCommas with Lists, Clauses, and Coordinate Adjectives

To attract local pollinators to the community garden, the volunteers planted lavender, marigolds, and salvia, in the central flower beds.

Which choice best punctuates the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    lavender marigolds and salvia in
  3. lavender, marigolds, and salvia inAnswer
  4. D
    lavender, marigolds, and, salvia in

Answer

The option that correctly lists the plants with commas and has no punctuation after the final plant is correct.
The correct option correctly uses commas to separate the three items in the list ('lavender, marigolds, and salvia') and does not place any punctuation after the final item, allowing the sentence to transition smoothly into the modifying prepositional phrase.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the items in the list.
The sentence lists three plants: 'lavender', 'marigolds', and 'salvia'.
Lists of three or more items require punctuation to separate them clearly.
2
Determine the correct punctuation to separate the list items.
Commas are needed after 'lavender' and 'marigolds' (the comma before 'and' is the Oxford comma, which is standard on the ACT).
Items in a list of three or more must be separated by commas.
3
Analyze whether any punctuation should follow the final item in the list.
No comma should follow 'salvia' before the prepositional phrase 'in the central flower beds'.
Punctuation should not separate the final item of a list from the rest of the clause or modifier that immediately follows it.

Key Concept

Commas in a series (lists of three or more items)
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Topics

Commas with Lists, Clauses, and Coordinate Adjectives

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