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Difficulty: MediumSentence Fragments

Traditional Japanese pagodas are celebrated for their ability to survive powerful earthquakes, a resilience largely attributed to a central wooden pillar called a shinbashira. Which extends from the roof to the foundation and absorbs seismic energy by swaying independently.

Which choice best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    shinbashira, it extends
  3. C
    shinbashira; extending
  4. shinbashira, which extendsAnswer

Answer

shinbashira, which extends
The correct option correctly uses a comma followed by the relative pronoun 'which' to join the relative clause to the independent clause. This integrates the descriptive information about the wooden pillar into the main sentence, resolving the sentence fragment without introducing any new errors.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the underlined portion and the surrounding grammatical structure.
The clause starting with 'Which extends' is a dependent relative clause that lacks a subject and a verb that can stand alone as a main clause.
Identifying that the clause after the period cannot express a complete thought reveals that the original sentence is a fragment.
2
Evaluate the choices for connecting the dependent clause to the independent clause.
The option using a comma and 'which' properly links the nonessential descriptive clause to the noun it modifies ('shinbashira').
Nonessential relative clauses must be integrated into the main sentence using a comma and a relative pronoun.
3
Check the remaining options for other sentence structure errors.
The option with a comma and 'it' leads to a comma splice, and the option with a semicolon and 'extending' results in a semicolon fragment.
Semicolons require independent clauses on both sides, and two independent clauses cannot be joined by a comma alone.

Key Concept

Sentence Fragments and Dependent Clauses
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Topics

Sentence Fragments

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