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Question

Difficulty: EasyCommas with Lists, Clauses, and Coordinate Adjectives

During the summer, the research team collected water samples from the lake, analyzed the chemical levels, and recorded the results.

Which choice is the best version of the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. lake, analyzed the chemical levels, and recordedAnswer
  2. B
    lake, analyzed the chemical levels, recording
  3. C
    lake; analyzed the chemical levels, and recorded
  4. D
    lake, analyzed the chemical levels, they recorded

Answer

lake, analyzed the chemical levels, and recorded
The correct option correctly uses commas to separate three parallel past-tense verbs ('collected,' 'analyzed,' and 'recorded') that share the subject 'the research team'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the structure of the sentence and the list.
The sentence contains a list of three actions performed by the 'research team': collecting samples, analyzing levels, and recording results.
Understanding the sentence structure is necessary to determine the required grammatical parallelism.
2
Check the parallel structure of the list items.
The first action is 'collected' (past tense). The subsequent actions must also be in the past tense: 'analyzed' and 'recorded'.
Items in a list must be grammatically parallel to ensure clarity and correctness.
3
Determine the correct punctuation for the list.
Commas are used to separate the three items, with a coordinating conjunction ('and') before the final item. A semicolon is incorrect because it would separate a verb phrase from its subject.
Standard punctuation rules for lists require commas between elements and prohibit semicolons from separating parts of a compound predicate.

Key Concept

Parallelism and Comma Usage in Lists
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Topics

Commas with Lists, Clauses, and Coordinate Adjectives

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