In her analysis of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (1905), scholar Candace Waid observes that the novel depicts the upper classes of New York society as “consumed by the appetite of a soulless ______blank an apt assessment given that The House of Mirth is set during the Gilded Age, a period marked by rapid industrialization, economic greed, and widening wealth disparities.
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 convention being tested is punctuation between a main clause and a supplementary noun phrase. This choice correctly uses a comma to mark the boundary between the main clause (“scholar…materialism”) and the supplementary noun phrase (“an apt assessment”) that describes Waid’s observation about how The House of Mirth depicts the upper classes of New York society.
Choice A is incorrect because a semicolon and the conjunction “and” can’t be used in this way to mark the boundary between a main clause and a supplementary noun phrase. Choice B is incorrect. Joining the main clause (“scholar…materialism”) and the following noun phrase with the conjunction “and” results in a confusing and illogical sentence that suggests that the novel depicts the upper classes of New York society as “an apt assessment,” which doesn’t make sense in this context. Choice D is incorrect because it fails to mark the boundary between the main clause and the supplementary noun phrase with appropriate punctuation.
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