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Difficulty: MediumSentence Fragments

Unlike the warm, salty waters of the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea is remarkably brackish and cold. Because its low salinity prevents the growth of shipworms. These destructive wood-boring clams would otherwise devour wooden shipwrecks within a few decades.

Which of the following options, if substituted for the underlined portion, makes the sentence grammatically correct?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    cold; because its
  3. cold, because itsAnswer
  4. D
    cold, its

Answer

Unlike the warm, salty waters of the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea is remarkably brackish and cold, because its low salinity prevents the growth of shipworms.
The correct option connects the dependent clause beginning with the subordinating conjunction 'because' to the preceding independent clause using a comma, resulting in a single, grammatically complete sentence.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the underlined portion and the surrounding clauses to determine if a sentence fragment is present.
The clause 'Because its low salinity prevents the growth of shipworms' begins with a subordinating conjunction ('Because') and contains no independent main clause, making it a dependent clause fragment.
Identifying the grammatical nature of the clauses is necessary to determine what punctuation or conjunction is needed to connect them.
2
Evaluate the options to find a grammatically correct way to link the dependent clause to the main clause.
Connecting the dependent clause to the preceding independent clause ('the Baltic Sea is remarkably brackish and cold') with a comma and the lowercase conjunction 'because' resolves the fragment.
A dependent clause starting with a subordinating conjunction should be attached to an independent clause to form a complete, grammatically correct sentence.
3
Verify that the other choices do not introduce new errors like semicolon fragments or comma splices.
The option with a semicolon creates a semicolon fragment because a semicolon must separate two independent clauses. The option with 'cold, its' creates a comma splice because it links two independent clauses with only a comma.
Checking all options ensures that the selected choice is the only grammatically correct and appropriate solution.

Key Concept

Sentence Fragments and Clause Coordination
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Topics

Sentence Fragments

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