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Question

Difficulty: Very hardSentence Fragments

The following passage is an excerpt from an art history essay about archaeological discoveries in Italy.

Although the ancient Roman city of Pompeii has been excavated for centuries, a newly uncovered villa contains frescoes that challenge previous assumptions about Roman interior design. While the pigments of the frescoes remained preserved under layers of volcanic ash; depicting mythological scenes that scholars once believed were only popular in the later empire.

Which of the following options represents the most grammatically correct revision of the underlined portion of the passage?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. The pigments of the frescoes remained preserved under layers of volcanic ash, depicting mythological scenes thatAnswer
  3. C
    Although the pigments of the frescoes remained preserved under layers of volcanic ash, depicting mythological scenes that
  4. D
    The pigments of the frescoes remained preserved under layers of volcanic ash, they depict mythological scenes that

Answer

The pigments of the frescoes remained preserved under layers of volcanic ash, depicting mythological scenes that
The correct revision removes the subordinating conjunction and the misplaced semicolon. This leaves 'The pigments of the frescoes remained preserved under layers of volcanic ash' as a complete independent clause. The following participial phrase beginning with 'depicting' correctly modifies the main clause, making the entire sentence grammatically complete.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the underlined portion in the context of the surrounding sentence to identify the clauses.
The original text features the subordinating conjunction 'While', which makes the clause dependent, followed by a semicolon and a participial modifier. This leaves the sentence without any independent clause.
Every grammatically correct sentence must contain at least one independent clause consisting of a subject and a finite verb.
2
Evaluate how to eliminate the fragment structure and correct the punctuation.
Removing the subordinating conjunction and replacing the semicolon with a comma before the participle 'depicting' creates a valid independent clause followed by an adjective modifier.
This establishes a complete sentence where 'The pigments' serves as the subject and 'remained' serves as the verb.
3
Verify that the correct revision does not introduce new errors such as comma splices or alternative fragments.
The correct revision maintains a single independent clause with proper modification, whereas other choices either leave the clause dependent or splice two independent clauses together with a comma.
Ensuring that the chosen revision resolves the fragment without introducing a comma splice or another fragment structure confirms the correct answer.

Key Concept

Sentence Fragments
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Sentence Fragments

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