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Difficulty: MediumCommas with Nonessential and Parenthetical Elements

In 1799, French soldiers in Egypt discovered the Rosetta Stone near the town of Rashid. The linguist who studied the inscriptions, a collection of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs worked for months to decipher them. Finally, in 1822, Jean-François Champollion decoded the text and unlocked the secrets of ancient Egyptian writing.

Which of the following options represents the correct punctuation for the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. who studied the inscriptions, a collection of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs,Answer
  3. C
    , who studied the inscriptions, a collection of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs,
  4. D
    who studied the inscriptions; a collection of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs,

Answer

The correct option is the one that adds a closing comma after the phrase 'a collection of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs' while keeping the restrictive clause 'who studied the inscriptions' connected to 'The linguist' without an intervening comma.
The correct option correctly leaves the restrictive clause 'who studied the inscriptions' unpunctuated and inserts a closing comma after the nonessential appositive 'a collection of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs' to balance the opening comma.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine if the clause 'who studied the inscriptions' is restrictive or nonrestrictive.
The clause is restrictive because it identifies which specific linguist is being discussed. Therefore, it should not be set off by a comma from the noun 'linguist'.
Restrictive clauses are essential to the meaning of the sentence and do not take commas.
2
Determine if the phrase 'a collection of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs' is essential or nonessential.
The phrase is a nonessential appositive that adds extra information about 'the inscriptions'. It must be set off by a pair of commas.
Nonessential appositives require surrounding commas to separate them from the rest of the sentence.
3
Check the punctuation before and after the appositive phrase.
There is already an opening comma after 'inscriptions'. A closing comma is required after 'hieroglyphs' before the verb 'worked' to balance the punctuation.
Parenthetical elements must have matching punctuation at both the beginning and the end.

Key Concept

Commas with nonessential appositives and restrictive relative clauses.
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Topics

Commas with Nonessential and Parenthetical Elements

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