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Question

Difficulty: MediumSemicolons

In the sentence below, a punctuation mark is missing between two independent clauses. What punctuation mark should be placed in the blank to correctly join them?

Answer:The team of archaeologists finally located the entrance to the tomb【;】 unfortunately, the heavy stone door was sealed shut from the inside.

Answer

A semicolon should be used to separate the two independent clauses.
A semicolon is the correct punctuation mark because it is used to connect two independent clauses that are closely related in thought, especially when the transition is marked by a transitional adverb such as 'unfortunately'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the two clauses separated by the blank.
Clause 1: 'The team of archaeologists finally located the entrance to the tomb'. Clause 2: 'unfortunately, the heavy stone door was sealed shut from the inside'.
Determining the grammatical nature of each clause helps decide the correct punctuation.
2
Evaluate the grammatical completeness of both clauses.
Both clauses are independent because they both contain a subject and a verb, and can stand alone as complete thoughts.
Independent clauses require strong punctuation or coordinating conjunctions to connect them.
3
Select the correct punctuation mark that can link two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction.
A semicolon is the appropriate mark to join the two independent clauses, especially before the transitional adverb 'unfortunately'.
Using a comma alone would cause a comma splice, and no conjunction is present to allow a comma.

Key Concept

Using semicolons to link independent clauses, particularly when the second clause begins with a transitional adverb.
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Topics

Semicolons

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