Archaeologists have estimated that the pre-Columbian Native American city of Cahokia, located across the Mississippi River from modern-day St. Louis, Missouri, had as many as 20,000 inhabitants in the year 1150 ______blank it one of the largest cities in North America at the time.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct answer: C
Explanation
Choice C is the best answer. The phrase “making…at the time” provides additional information about Cahokia that’s not required for the sentence to make sense or function grammatically. As a nonessential supplement, this phrase should be separated from the rest of the sentence with a comma.
Choice A is incorrect. This choice results in a run-on sentence. The nonessential descriptive aside “making…at the time” needs to be separated from the rest of the sentence with a comma. Choice B is incorrect. This choice results in a sentence fragment. “Making…at the time” doesn’t have a subject and can’t stand on its own as a sentence. Thus, it can’t be separated from the rest of the sentence with a period. Choice D is incorrect. This choice results in a punctuation error. “Making…at the time” doesn’t have a subject and can’t stand on its own as an independent clause. Since a semicolon can only link two independent clauses, using one here creates an error.
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