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Question

Difficulty: MediumDashes

The passage below contains an underlined portion.

Discovered in 1799 by French soldiers rebuilding a fort, the Rosetta Stone—a broken granodiorite stele inscribed with a royal decree, provided the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Which choice best punctuates the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    Stone; a broken granodiorite stele inscribed with a royal decree,
  3. Stone—a broken granodiorite stele inscribed with a royal decree—Answer
  4. D
    Stone. A broken granodiorite stele inscribed with a royal decree,

Answer

Stone—a broken granodiorite stele inscribed with a royal decree—
The correct choice uses a matched pair of dashes to enclose the nonessential appositive phrase 'a broken granodiorite stele inscribed with a royal decree'. When setting off nonessential information within a sentence, punctuation must be consistent: dashes must be paired with dashes, commas with commas, or parentheses with parentheses.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the nonessential information in the sentence that acts as an appositive clarifying 'Rosetta Stone'.
The phrase 'a broken granodiorite stele inscribed with a royal decree' is nonessential and should be set off by matching punctuation marks.
Nonessential elements must be set off from the rest of the sentence using commas, parentheses, or dashes.
2
Analyze the punctuation surrounding the nonessential phrase to ensure consistency.
The original sentence opens the phrase with a dash but attempts to close it with a comma, which is inconsistent.
To maintain punctuation consistency, an opening dash must be paired with a closing dash.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the one that correctly uses a pair of dashes or a pair of commas without introducing fragments.
The choice that changes the closing comma to a dash matches the opening dash and correctly punctuates the sentence.
This maintains the grammatical integrity of the sentence and respects the dash-pair consistency rule.

Key Concept

Using consistent pairs of dashes to enclose nonessential parenthetical elements.
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Topics

Dashes

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