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Difficulty: MediumClause Boundaries and Linking

Urban areas often experience significantly higher temperatures than their rural surroundings, a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect. Dark materials like asphalt absorb and retain solar heat _______ areas cool the local environment through evapotranspiration. Consequently, city planners are increasingly incorporating green roofs and parks into urban designs to mitigate this warming.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

  1. A
    vegetated
  2. B
    , vegetated
  3. ; vegetatedAnswer
  4. D
    ; while vegetated

Answer

; vegetated
The text contains two independent clauses: 'Dark materials like asphalt absorb and retain solar heat' and 'vegetated areas cool the local environment through evapotranspiration.' The option with a semicolon followed by 'vegetated' correctly joins these two independent clauses without creating a grammatical error.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the clause boundaries in the sentence.
The sentence consists of two independent clauses: 'Dark materials like asphalt absorb and retain solar heat' and 'vegetated areas cool the local environment through evapotranspiration.'
To determine how to link them, we must first know if each can stand alone as a complete sentence.
2
Evaluate the options to see which punctuation or conjunction correctly joins two independent clauses.
A semicolon alone can link two independent clauses.
A semicolon is grammatically sufficient to connect two closely related independent clauses without any additional coordinating conjunction.

Key Concept

Clause Boundaries and Linking
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Clause Boundaries and Linking

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