Mastering Punctuation: Commas, Semicolons, & Colons (Post-test)

The intense pressure found in the deep ocean can affect the structure of proteins in fish’s cells,

distorting the proteins’ shape. The chemical trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) counters this effect, ensuring that proteins retain their original ______ is found in high concentrations in the cells of the deepest-dwelling fish.

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

• configurations. TMAO

• configurations TMAO

• configurations, TMAO

• configurations and TMAO

Tags

CCSS.L.4.2C

CCSS.L.6.2A

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 ______ 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?

• materialism”; and

• materialism” and

• materialism,”

• materialism”

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.2A

To humans, it does not appear that the golden orb-weaver spider uses camouflage to capture its ______ the brightly colored arachnid seems to wait conspicuously in the center of its large circular web for insects to approach. Researcher Po Peng of the University of Melbourne has explained that the spider’s distinctive coloration may in fact be part of its appeal.

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

• prey, rather,

• prey rather,

• prey, rather;

• prey; rather,

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.2A

Typically, underlines, scribbles, and notes left in the margins by a former owner lower a book’s _______ when the former owner is a famous poet like Walt Whitman, such markings, known as marginalia, can be a gold mine to literary scholars.

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

• value, but

• value

• value,

• value but

Tags

CCSS.L.1.1G

CCSS.L.3.1H

CCSS.L.5.1A

CCSS.L.5.1E

After the United Kingdom began rolling out taxes equivalent to a few cents on single-use plastic grocery bags in 2011, plastic-bag consumption decreased byup to ninety _______ taxes are subject to what economists call the “rebound effect”: as the change became normalized, plastic-bag use started to creep back up.

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

• percent, such

• percent and such

• percent. Such

• percent such

Tags

CCSS.L.1.2B

CCSS.L.5.2