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Difficulty: MediumSentence Fragments

Deep inside a sandstone mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a secure facility designed to preserve the world's crop diversity. Which serves as a fail-safe backup against the accidental loss of seeds in traditional genebanks.

Which choice best corrects the underlined portion of the passage?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    diversity; serving as a fail-safe backup
  3. C
    diversity, this vault serves as a fail-safe backup
  4. diversity, which serves as a fail-safe backupAnswer

Answer

The option that changes the punctuation and inserts 'which serves' is correct because it properly subordinates the clause, connecting it to the independent clause as a modifier.
The correct option uses a comma followed by the relative pronoun 'which' to subordinate the clause, attaching it directly to the noun phrase it modifies ('a secure facility designed to preserve the world's crop diversity'). This resolves the sentence fragment by integrating it into a grammatically complete complex sentence.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the grammatical structure of the underlined portion and the surrounding clauses.
The clause 'Which serves as a fail-safe backup...' is a relative clause that lacks a subject/independent structure to stand on its own, making the original construction a dependent clause fragment.
Recognizing that the clause is dependent tells us that it cannot be written as a separate sentence.
2
Evaluate the punctuation and conjunctions needed to join the clauses.
Using a semicolon before a non-finite verb ('serving') creates a semicolon fragment, while placing a comma between 'diversity' and 'this vault serves' results in a comma splice because both sides would be independent clauses.
This eliminates the incorrect structural combinations.
3
Select the option that correctly integrates the dependent clause.
The choice that uses a comma followed by 'which serves' properly subordinates the clause, attaching it to the preceding independent clause as a modifier.
This creates a single, grammatically complete complex sentence.

Key Concept

Sentence Fragments
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Topics

Sentence Fragments

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