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Difficulty: HardEnd-of-Sentence Punctuation

In 1912, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift, suggesting that Earth’s continents were once joined in a single supercontinent. Most of his contemporaries dismissed the idea because Wegener could not identify a physical mechanism that could move entire landmasses. He continued to gather supporting evidence until his death. Never seeing his revolutionary theory accepted by the scientific community.

Which of the following is the correct punctuation and phrasing for the underlined portion of the passage?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    death, he never saw his
  3. C
    death; never seeing his
  4. death, never seeing hisAnswer

Answer

death, never seeing his
The correct choice uses a comma to properly join the independent clause with the subsequent participial phrase. Because the second part of the sentence functions as a dependent modifying phrase rather than an independent clause, a comma is the correct punctuation mark to maintain sentence cohesion without introducing a fragment or a comma splice.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the grammatical structure of the two parts of the sentence separated by the punctuation boundary.
The first part ('He continued to gather supporting evidence until his death') is an independent clause. The second part ('Never seeing his revolutionary theory accepted...') is a participial phrase modifying Wegener's action.
Determining the grammatical status of the clauses helps establish whether they can stand alone or must be joined as modifiers.
2
Evaluate the options that create fragments.
Leaving a period (NO CHANGE) or introducing a semicolon creates a sentence fragment because a dependent participial phrase cannot stand alone.
Sentence fragments are grammatical errors that must be resolved by integrating the dependent phrase into the main clause.
3
Evaluate the option that creates a run-on or comma splice.
Using a comma with the phrase 'he never saw' creates a second independent clause, which results in a comma splice because no coordinating conjunction or semicolon is present.
Two independent clauses must be joined with appropriate coordinating conjunctions or punctuation to avoid comma splices.
4
Verify the correct option.
Using a comma followed by the participle 'never seeing' properly integrates the modifying phrase into the preceding independent clause.
This establishes a grammatically complete sentence with correct punctuation at the boundary.

Key Concept

Distinguishing between independent clauses and dependent phrases at sentence boundaries to select appropriate punctuation.
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Topics

End-of-Sentence Punctuation

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