Examkin

Question

Difficulty: EasySentence-Level Transitions

A student is writing an essay about the history of everyday inventions. Read the paragraph and answer the question that follows.

During a freezing winter ride on a New York City streetcar in 1902, Mary Anderson noticed a recurring problem. The driver had to keep the front window open to wipe away the accumulating sleet, which chilled the passengers [1] inside. Instead, she began sketching a design for a hand-operated squeegee that could clear the glass from within the vehicle.

Which option for the underlined portion marked [1] establishes the correct logical connection and uses proper punctuation?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    inside, consequently, she
  3. inside. Consequently, sheAnswer
  4. D
    inside. Consequently, as a result, she

Answer

The correct choice is the option that separates the sentences with a period and uses the transition 'Consequently' to show a clear cause-and-effect relationship.
The correct choice is the option that separates the two independent clauses with a period and starts the second sentence with the transition 'Consequently.' This transition correctly establishes the cause-and-effect relationship between the cold passengers and the invention of the windshield wiper.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the relationship between the two independent clauses.
The first clause describes a problem (passengers getting cold because the driver keeps the window open), and the second clause describes a reaction (Mary Anderson designing a squeegee to solve this). This represents a cause-and-effect relationship.
Identifying the correct logical flow helps narrow down the appropriate transition word.
2
Evaluate the punctuation needed to join the two clauses.
Both clauses are independent and can stand alone as sentences. They must be separated by a terminal punctuation mark like a period or a semicolon, rather than joined by a comma, which would create a comma splice.
Ensuring proper punctuation prevents grammatical run-on sentences or comma splices.
3
Select the option that matches both the correct relationship and correct punctuation without redundancy.
The option using a period followed by 'Consequently,' is correct. The option using 'consequently' with a comma is a comma splice, the option using 'Instead' is a contrast transition, and the option using both 'Consequently' and 'as a result' is redundant.
This identifies the final correct answer based on grammar, logic, and conciseness.

Key Concept

Selecting logical sentence transitions and maintaining grammatical sentence boundaries
Estimated Time:45s
Rate this question

Topics

Sentence-Level Transitions

More questions from this topic